THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


T[IE   AUTHOR    WITH   HIS   RECORD   TUSKS 


Frontispiece 


FIVE  YEARS 
IN   THE   SUDAN 


BY 

EDWARD   FOTHERGILL 


"  When  Allah  made  the  Sudan  he  laughed  " 

Native  saying 


WITH  32  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW    YORK 

D.   APPLETON    AND   COMPANY 

1911 


WILLIAM    BRENDON    ANU   SON,    LIMITED 

FRINTERS,    PLYMOUTH 

ENGLAND 


>^ 


x>r 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

In   the  year   1885   Gordon  fell  at  Khartoum,   and 

the  Sudan  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Mahdi.     In 

1898,   thirteen  years  later,  the  combined  forces  of 

England   and   Egypt   met  and   defeated   the   hosts 

>^    of  the   Khalifa   at   Omdurman.      The   regeneration 

^    of  the  Sudan  may  be  dated  from  that  year,  though 

<;:<    it   was   more   than    twelve   months    later   that   the 

Khalifa  himself,  making  a  desperate  eifort  to  regain 

his  fallen  power,  died  on  the  field  of  battle,  and 

combined   resistance  on  the  part  of  the   Sudanese 

ceased.     Twelve  years  have  therefore  elapsed  since 

the  English  entered  the  country :  it  is  of  the  earlier 

part  of  this  time  that  I  have  written. 

As  the  title  of  the  book  suggests,  it  is  filled  for 
the  most  part  with  reminiscences  of  the  time  which 
I  spent  in  the  Sudan.  I  have  not  attempted  to 
probe  deeply  into  either  the  politics  or  the  local 
administration  of  the  country  :  any  remarks  which 
I  have  made  on  these  subjects  have  arisen  naturally 
out  of  their  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  which  I 
was  writing  at  the  moment.  And  I  wish  to  make 
it  clear  that  in  cases  where  it  may  seem  that  a  direct 
attack  has  been  made  upon  individuals,  it  was  not 


30f^2'R^^8 


vi  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

my  intention  to  condemn  any  one  man  personally, 
but  the  Government  which  was  responsible  for  and 
condoned  his  actions, 

I  have  to  thank  Mr.  G.  B.  Middleton  for  having 
placed  his  fine  collection  of  photographs  at  my 
disposal :  nearly  all  those  published  in  this  book 
are  from  his  camera,  and  many  of  them  were  taken 
in  the  days  when  I  had  the  great  fortune  to  have 
Mr,  Middleton  as  a  companion  in  big-game  shooting. 

I  am  also  indebted  to  Captain  Channer,  of  the 
Egyptian  Army,  for  some  photographs,  and  for  much 
entertaininor  and  orig^inal  information  reojardinof  the 
Sudan  and  its  people. 

To  His  Excellency  the  Sirdar  and  Governor- 
General  of  the  Sudan,  who  is  mainly  responsible 
for  its  present-day  prosperity,  to  Slatin  Pasha,  the 
Inspector- General,  and  to  many  other  officers  of  the 
Sudan  service,  my  deepest  gratitude  is  due  for  the 
kindness  and  interest  with  which  they  have  met  any 
of  my  applications  in  connection  with  this  book. 

And  last,  but  not  least,  I  wish  to  thank  my  Friend, 
by  whose  desire  and  through  whose  encouragement  it 
was  written. 

Edward  Fothergill. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

FIRST   IMPRESSIONS  OF   PLACE  AND   PEOPLE 

Arrival  at  Khartoum — Appearance  of  Khartoum  in  1901 — Hun- 
ger and  heat — Omdurman  the  centre  of  trade — Kitchener's 
Dock — Life  in  the  market — Former  times  compared  with  the 
present  day — Danger  to  women  in  the  time  of  the  Mahdi — 
Grace  of  the  Sudanese  women — Lax  morality  of  all  classes 
— Mohammedan  Divorce  Laws — Englishmen  and  native 
women — The  child  difficulty — Sudanese  men — Their  in- 
telligence and  energy — Their  ingenuity  and  cleverness — 
Sand  storm  and  mosquitoes 1 

CHAPTER  II 

OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDI'S  TOMB 

The  payment  of  wages — Natives  surprised  at  receiving  money 
— Greek  traders — Their  patient  endurance  in  the  country — 
Their  reward — Smuggling — Buying  stores — A  humiliating 
ride — A  sad  story — The  drink  demon — Growing  healthiness 
of  the  Sudan — Reduction  of  mosquitoes — Reflections  on  the 
past — Omdurman  by  night — Donkeys  and  disaster — Mixed 
marriages — The  silence  of  the  night — A  dream — Omdurman 
by  day — Imitative  faculty  of  the  Sudanese — Sudanese  servants 
— The  Mahdi's  Tomb — Its  "  desecration  " — The  reasons  for 
this,  and  the  act  applauded — "  The  man  in  the  street " — His 
danger  to  the  Empire — Parliament  and  Kitchener — Ignorance 
of  Little  Englanders — After  Omdurman — The  march  into  the 
town — The  Mahdi's  prophecy — Destruction  of  his  tomb — 
Religious  sentiment  regarding  it — The  destruction  of  the 
prophecy — An  Englishman's  tomb — The  Khalifa's  house — 
The  fascination  of  Omdurman — Its  silence — Egyptians  and 
Sudanese — The  Mosque  Square — Politeness  of  natives — Civil 
officials  and  natives — In  the  bazaars — "  An  innocent  abroad  "        15 


viii        FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

CHAPTER  III 

FROM  KHARTOUM  TO  TAUFIKIER 

Departure  from  Omdurman — Slatin  Pasha — The  noisy  natives 
— Women  versus  chickens — Arrival  at,  and  departure  from, 
Khartoum — Under  way — The  meeting  of  the  waters — The 
gunboats — Tremendous  heat — A  storm — A  hundred  miles 
from  Omdurman — Difficulty  of  navigation — Getenia — Cheap 
food — Wonderful  birds — The  casual  "  sportsman  " — The  native 
officer  and  sport — A  shooting  expedition — A  wonderful  scheme 
— Dueim,  the  gum  port — Grouse  shooting — Wooded  land — 
Destruction  of  timber — Beautiful  scenery — Crocodiles  and 
hippopotami — Monkeys  and  their  natural  enemies — An  un- 
fortunate pet — Kawa — Beauty  of  the  women — Form  and  cere- 
mony— Sudd  at  Kawa — Goz  Abu  Guma — The  end  of  civilisa- 
tion— The  tropical  Sudan — The  Ford  of  Abu  Zeit — A  ques- 
tion for  the  Government — A  danger  in  war — Delay  in  peace 
— Gebel  Ain — A  good  landmark — Renk — A  terrified  clerk — A 
famous  story — A  shooting  centre — A  lucky  chance — Fashoda 
— Swamp  and  fever — Marchand's  fort — A  brave  man — The 
name  of  Fashoda  changed — Duck  shooting — An  energetic 
Mudir — The  Shillouks — Their  objection  to  work — The  first 
missionary  station — A  priest  on  the  natives — Tomatoes  and 
conservatism — Starving  natives  refuse  to  work — Gradual 
progress — The  Shillouk  women — A  drunken  monarch — The 
story  of  a  chaplain — A  royal  departure — The  religion  of  the 
Shillouks  and  Dinkas — Priest's  devotion  to  their  work — 
Kitchener  and  Marchand — A  little-known  incident — A  dead 
snake — The  approach  to  Taufikier — The  junction  to  the 
south        .        .        . 40 


CHAPTER  IV 

A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVERY 

Lost  Englishmen — A  change  in  our  plans — Difficulty  in  procur- 
ing meat— Dinkas  and  cash — Clouds  of  fire-flies — Mosquitoes 
again — Tribes  in  the  Sobat  district — Native  dandies- 
Fashions  in  nudity — Morality  of  these  tribes — A  girl  and  a 
mirror — A  chief  and  his  clothing — A  tributary  of  the  Sobat 
river — News  of  a  white  man — A  difficult  channel — Robinson 
Crusoe  !  his  following — Abyssinia — Rain  and  mosquitoes — A 
bed  in  a  bath — Beauty  of  the  mornings — Hippopotami  and  the 


CONTENTS  ix 

boat — Water  snakes — A  bathroom  experience — Glorious  storm- 
skies — The  effect  of  the  rains — Return  to  Taufikier — A  fisher- 
man's luck — From  Taufikier  to  Khartoum      ....      74 


CHAPTER  V 

ELEPHANT  SHOOTING  AND  SUDD  FIGHTING 

The  Bahr-el-Abyad— The  game  on  its  banks — Hippopotamus  as 
food — A  lucky  shot — Lonely  days — Sleep — The  Bahr-el-Ghazal 
— First  blood — Lost — Mr.  Middleton  and  Mrs.  Grey — Heavy 
damages — Man-like  apes — Their  danger  to  human  beings — 
Meshr-el-Rek — "  "Waiting  orders  " — Dull  days — The  call  of  the 
whisky  bottle — Elephant  shooting — My  crew  as  beasts  of  prey 
— The  evening  meal — Night — Sudded — Attempted  suicide — 
An  offer  of  a  wife  and  children — An  anxious  time — A  welcome 
breeze 89 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  BAHR-EL-GHAZAL,   ITS  INHABITANTS  AND  SPORT 

Unexplored  country — The  French  as  pioneers — The  penalty  of 
theft — A  ghastly  code — English  officials — Englishmen,  and 
Sudanese  and  drink — Strange  behaviour  of  my  crew — The 
northern  and  southern  Sudanese  compared — Egyptians  and 
Sudanese  compared — An  efi'eminate  native  and  his  punish- 
ment— Watching  an  elephant-shoot — Vitality  of  elephant — 
Eland — The  lazy  man's  luck — A  second  instance — Difficulties 
of  navigation  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal — Treachery  of  the  natives 
— The  death  of  two  officers — The  Nile  and  its  victims — 
Fish  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  and  in  the  River  Jur — Their 
arrival  on  board — "Water-leeches — Electric  eels — Scorpions — 
An  epidemic  of  scorpion  stings — A  native  actor — Rubber  in 
the  Bahr-el-Ghazal — England  and  the  Congo  Free  State — 
Moral  laxity  of  natives  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  Province — 
Their  skill  as  workmen — Officer  killed  by  elephant — Deaths 
in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  province — A  new  breed  of  dogs — Dogs 
as  an  edible — French  and  native  marriage  laws — The  flies  of 
this  province — The  River  Jur — The  natives  of  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal  and  their  food — "  The  missing  link  " — Shooting  a 
hippopotamus .         .         .106 


X  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  SUDD 

The  Papyrii3  Avenue — The  throne  of  desolation— A  shameful 
eijisode,  and  a  remarkable  sight — Expense  of  the  Sudd — The 
first  expedition — Sir  William  Garstin's  proposal — In  Baker's 
time — A  suggestion — Cape  to  Cairo  Railway — Cutting  the  Sudd 
— A  discovery — A  disappointing  station — Shambe — Shooting 
by  moonlight — Its  result — The  servant  difficulty — This  diffi- 
culty solved — Delirium  and  devotion — Sudanese  servants' 
contempt  for  Egyptian  customs — A  surreptitious  meal — Sick 
leave 128 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE  UPPER  NILE  AND  THE  BELGIAN    CONGO 

Return  to  the  Sudan — Overpowering  desire  for  sleep — Mongalla 
the  Sudan  frontier  station — A  good  time — A  slice  of  rain — 
The  rains — The  Behri  tribe — Mosquitoes  and  the  blacks — 
Another  elephant-shoot — Close  quarters  and  a  retreat — A 
marvellous  sight — The  Belgian  stations— Their  picturesque- 
ness — The  natives  of  the  Congo — Their  morality — "White  men 
and  natives — Early  marriages— Expensive  wives — Class  dis- 
tinctions—Belgian hospitality — Strained  relations— Regaf — 
A  dangerous  journey— A  fantasia— The  "Stomach  dance" — 
Attractive  country— Belgian  sport— Gondokoro— English  sentry 
challenge — Rain  and  loneliness— Sensible  dwellings— Smallness 
of  the  world— Vegetables  at  Mongalla— Smuggling  of  ivory— 
An  enterprising  lady — A  profitable  concession — Elephant 
shooting  at  Bor- The  capital  of  the  mosquito  world — Lost 
again — A  scare — A  second  shoot,  emharras  des  elephants — A 
human  elephant— A  terrible  punishment — Defaulters  and 
their  punishment — Zebra,  and  Jackson's  Hartebeeste— Congo 
impertinences  — A  discovery  — An  uncomfortable  duty — Leav- 
ing Mongalla — An  army  of  elephants — A  visiting  crocodile   .     140 


CHAPTER  IX 

MISSIONARIES  AND   OTHERS 

Change  in  the  country— A  difficulty  reversed — The  question  of 
missionaries— The  Catholic  missionary— His  method  of  work- 


CONTENTS  xi 

ing — Good  results — A  servant  incident — Church  of  England 
in  Khartoum — The  American  mission — A  mistaken  mode  of 
teaching — Spoiling  the  black — Waste  of  money — The  mission- 
aries in  Egypt — The  Government  and  the  missionaries — 
The  casual  Britisher  and  the  Government— Ignorance  and 
knowledge— Flogging  the  natives — The  custom  of  the  country 
— Native  pleasures— Flogging  a  necessary  punishment — An 
example — Reflections — Little  Englanders  and  England — An 
eulogy  of  Kipling— Sport  and  England — Change  in  Khartoum 
— Renewed  prosperity— The  Department  of  Works — The 
irony  of  fate — Individual  efficiency — Departmental  failure — 
The  sea  wall  at  Khartoum— The  Military  Administration— 
The  attacks  levelled  against  it — Military  and  civil  officials 
and  the  Government        .         .        .        .        .         .         .        .177 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  SPORT— THE  BLUE  NILE 

The  Blue  Nile — Its  villages — Kamlin — The  shooting  in  this  dis- 
trict— Three  generations — My  governess — Wad  Medani — An 
ideal  Mudir— Further  south — Senaar  and  Senga — Big  game 
— The  banks  of  the  Blue  Nile— Roseires — The  Slave  Repres- 
sion Department — Slave  dealers  captured — The  block-house 
system— The  gunboat  at  Roseires — The  McMillan  Expedition 
— Over  the  cataract — A  rough  journey — Nerves  and  shooting — 
Sport  in  the  Roseires  district — A  chief  and  a  dog — Natives 
from  the  interior — Their  ignorance  of  civilisation — The 
telescope  and  the  looking-glass — Leopard  kills  my  dog — 
Women  and  their  braves — A  fatal  taunt — The  local  natives — 
Village  rest-house — Noises  of  the  night — Fertility  of  the  Blue 
Nile  districts — Effect  of  the  rains— Forest  fires — The  Abyssi- 
nian frontier — A  long  march — An  elusive  village — The  coming 
of  fever — Missing  a  leopard — Stalking  antelopes  by  night — 
Hyenas  and  lions 198 

CHAPTER   XI 

VARIED   EXPERIENCES  ON  THE  BLUE  NILE 

Possibility  of  finding  coal  in  the  Blue  Nile  districts— Gold  sifting 
— Attractive  bines  -An  unpleasant  experience — Insects  at  din- 
ner— Khor  Tub — Green  drinking  water — Hunting  antelope — 
An  accident— A  pilgrim  from  Hausaland — Blue  Nile  elephanta 


xii         FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

— A  moonlight  shoot,  and  an  unfortunate  bag — Crocodile 
shooting— The  late  Mr.  Scott  Moncrieff— The  revolt  and  its 
sequel— Mistaken  mercy— Egypt  and  the  Sudan— The  warn- 
ing of  Egypt — Sudanese  sense  of  justice — The  new  generation — 
Climate  of  the  Blue  Nile— Physiognomy  of  the  different  Sudan- 
ese compared — An  African  hunting-dog — Hunting  elephants 
on  horseback — My  favourite  camping-spot — A  fine  python — 
More  shooting — A  long  chase — Smoking  and  thirst — A  thirsty 
walk — The  Nile — A  short  trip — Successful  shooting — The  rise 
of  the  Nile— A  wonderful  flight  of  birds — Birds  and  insects — 
Native  rafts — Sudanese  desire  for  knowledge  .        .        .     -  •     219 


CHAPTER  XII 

MILITARY  AND  CIVIL  OFFICIALS 

Advent  of  civil  oflScials — A  sudden  change — Its  effect  upon  the 
natives— Necessity  for  caution — "  Paget,  M.P."  and  the  Govern- 
ment— The  civil  authorities  and  their  officials — Dissatisfaction 
— A  case  in  point — Native  contempt  for  weakness — Civilians 
replacing  military  officials — Civil  Mudirs— Military  versus 
civil  officials — Unjustified  complaints — The  young  officer 
—Civil  and  military  friendships  —  The  Sudan  Medical 
Department— Insufficient  organisation — The  military  hospital 
regime,  as  compared  to  the  civil — Irritating  restrictions 
— Some  examples — London  and  Khartoum — The  folly  of 
comparison— Faith  of  the  natives  in  English  doctors— Their 
lack  of  faith  in  Egyptians— The  Englishman's  three  attributes.     245 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SUPERSTITION  AND  CUSTOMS 
The  native  Hakim — An  interesting  report — The  evil  eye — Evil 
spirits  and  their  expulsion — The  faith  cure — Power  of  old 
superstitions — An  Egyptian  officer's  superstition— Superstition 
regarding  crocodiles — A  wonderful  story — The  Arabian  Nights 
recalled — The  professional  story-teller— Comparisons  of  beauty 
— Native  ideas  of  beauty — Their  treatment  of  children — Asmall 
girl's  experience — The  rite  of  circumcision — Weddings — Native 
fatalism — A  curious  instance — Unfortunate  prisoners— Kismet 
— A  common  belief — The  howling  Dervishes — The  Moslem 
religion — A  good  example — Allah  and  his  people — Kipling 


CONTENTS  xiii 

again— Sudanese  music— A  native  song — Sudanese  emotions 
— A  man  drowned — The  mourners — The  wake — The  burial — 
Native  indifference  to  death  and  separation — The  question  of 
slaves— Failure  of  immediate  liberty — Egyptians  and  the 
slave  trade — The  slave's  future — Slavery  still  lingers — The 
Gordon  College — Education— Dignity  of  the  Sudanese — 
Special  Providence  for  the  Sudan — The  floating-dock  sunk — 
The  capture  and  release  of  a  midnight  thief— Egyptian  and 
Sudanese  morality  compared 259 


CHAPTER  XIV 

YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY 

Government  report — Khartoum  in  1884 — A  journalist's  de- 
scription— Khartoum  in  1909 — "Wonderful  impression" — 
Eecent  change — New  railways — Wonderful  results — Passenger 
traffic — Senaar — The  Congo  again — New  Sudan  territory — 
England  in  Africa — The  Congolese  authorities— Lack  of 
sporting  instincts — More  examples — A  fish  story — Port 
Sudan — Cheap  criticisms — The  Port  Sudan  railway — Non- 
sense of  the  Egyptian  Legislative  Council  regarding  the  Sudan 
— The  Sudan's  finances — Lack  of  population — A  suggestion — 
The  demands  of  the  Army — The  expansion  of  the  country — A 
tourist  resort — "  Wliere  Gordon  fell " 291 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE  MIRTH  OF  ALLAH 

Why  ? — A  Sudanese  opinion — An  Egyptian  opinion — A  personal 

opinion — The  lost  legion  of  pioneers — The  end       .         .        .     309 

APPENDICES 

Appendix  A — Memorandum  of  the  Wild  Animals'  Preservation 

Ordinance,  1908 313 

Appendix  B — Proclamation  regarding  the  Import  of  Ammunition    320 

Index 325 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Author  with  his  Kecord  Tusks 

A  Happy  Sudanese  Cook 

Sir  Rudolph  Baron  von  Slatin  Pasha,  k.c.m.g.,  c.v.o 
C.B.,  Inspector-General  of  the  Sudan  . 

Young  Sudanese — White  Nile    . 

Natives  at  Taufikier    .  .  .  . 

A  Stormy  Sunset — White  Nile  . 

White-eared  Cob  .  .  .  . 

Mrs.  Grey's  Antelope  .  .  .  . 

White  Nile  Elephant — The  Beginning  of  the  End 

Gossips  op  the  White  Nile 

"  SUDDBD  "    IN    the    BaHR-EL-GhaZAL 

Hippopotamus  ..... 

Sudd  Cutting  .  .  .  . 

Lady  Thatching  her  Residence  . 

The  Nile  looking  South  from  the  Summit  of  Mount 
Regap        .... 

A  Morning's  Bag 

American  Mission — River  Sobat  . 

The  Raw  Material — White  Nile 

"  The  Old  Customer  " — Blue  Nile  Buffalo 

Natives  of  Ghooly 


FACE 

Frontispiece 

10 


40 

64 

74 

84 

90 

92 

98 

110 

114 

126 

134 

144 

156 
172 
182 
186 
198 
206 


XVI 


FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE  SUDAN 


Forest  Scenery — Blue  Nile 

A  Fallen  Monarch 

Roan  Antelope 

Interested  Sudanese  Children — "White  Nile 

On  the  Way  to  Camp  . 

Mr,  Middleton  with  one  of  his  Koodoos  . 

Spotted  Hyena 

Crocodile  on  Gunboat  . 

A  Southern  Belle 

Family  and  their  Residence 

Sudanese  Schoolboys    . 

A  Nile  Fish  .... 


PAGE 

214 

218 
222 
232 
236 
240 
244 
264 
268 
272 
286 
300 


FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE  SUDAN 

CHAPTER   I 

FIRST    IMPRESSIONS    OF    PLACE    AND    PEOPLE 

MY  first  impressions  of  the  Sudan  were  rather 
blurred  and  uncertain ;  I  was  so  much  more 
interested  in  myself  than  I  was  in  my  surroundings. 
I  would,  I  felt,  have  plenty  of  opportunity  in  the 
future  of  viewing  the  country  ;  I  also  felt  that  if  my 
tongue  continued  to  harden  to  any  great  extent,  it 
would  certainly  rattle  against  the  roof  of  my  mouth 
as  I  walked,  and  this  appeared  to  be  a  matter  of 
some  seriousness. 

A  drink  of  some  muddy,  and  very  sweet  tea,  did 
much  to  restore  my  jaded  interest,  and  I  stepped 
out  on  the  shingled  platform,  to  behold  Khartoum  as 
it  appeared  in  the  year  1901,  or  three  years  after  the 
battle  of  Omdurman  and  the  downfall  of  the  Khalifa. 
I  must  confess  to  a  first  feeling  of  disappointment ; 
as  far  as  I  could  see  the  town  consisted  of  a  large, 
white,  and  somewhat  lonely-looking  palace ;  the 
famous  Gordon  College,  then  a  few  feet  above  the 
ground,  and  a  dingy  block  of  buildings  standing 
some  way  back  from  the  river  in  an  evidently  un- 

B 


2  FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE   SUDAN 

finished  condition.  These  latter  buildings,  I  was  in- 
formed, were  to  be  the  New  War  and  Administrative 
offices  of  the  Government.  The  date  palms  which 
lined  the  river  to  the  west  made  a  welcome  break  in 
the  monotony  of  the  picture,  indeed,  even  in  those 
days,  before  the  broad  avenues  of  trees,  and  the 
plant-surrounded  Bimgalows  which  now  beautify  the 
city,  had  made  their  appearance,  it  was  a  picturesque 
spot  enough  when  once  the  eye  had  become  accus- 
tomed to  the  scene.  The  railway  had  its  terminus 
on  the  north  side  of  the  river  in  those  days,  and  I 
recollect  thinking,  as  I  stood  in  the  intense  morning 
heat  with  a  burning  breeze  blowing  fine  particles  of 
sand  in  my  eyes,  that  its  name  of  Halfayeh  was, 
with  but  very  little  alteration,  singularly  appropriate. 
The  name  has  since  been  altered  to  the  more  im- 
posing Khartoum  North  ;  and  the  place  itself  is  now 
the  headquarters  of  the  Steamers  and  Boats  Depart- 
ment, and  is  a  thriving  little  town  into  the  bargain, 
but  I  shall  always  remember  it  as  I  knew  it  that  first 
morning  years  ago,  when  its  atmosphere  was  of  heat 
and  desolation  alone. 

The  boat  which  was  to  conve)^  me  to  Omdurman 
had  not  arrived,  but  sick  to  death  of  the  train  in  which 
I  had  been  slowly  cooking  for  the  previous  twenty- 
four  hours,  I  sat  on  the  bank  of  the  Blue  Nile  and 
watched  the  flood's  quick  descent  to  join  the  more 
stately  waters  of  the  White  Nile,  a  mile  or  so  further 
north.  Twenty-four  hours'  rest  at  Wady  Haifa  en 
route  for  Khartoum,  had  given  me  my  first  glimpse 
of  the  Sudanese  in  their  native  element,  but  the 


FIRST   IMPRESSIONS  3 

latter  town  being  so  indelibly  impressed  upon  my 
mind  as  the  centre  of  the  romance  and  drama  with 
which  the  Sudan  had  been  filled,  it  was  easier  to  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  the  country  here  than  it  had  been 
at  the  frontier  station  some  few  hours  before.  A  few 
Egyptian  Effendies  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
station,  and  an  occasional  passing  soldier  of  the  same 
nationality  were  all  the  living  evidences  of  the 
Occupation  which  met  my  eye,  but  across  the  river 
the  flags  of  Britain  and  Egypt  floated  proudly  side 
by  side  on  the  Sirdar's  palace,  silent  witnesses  of  the 
new  regime.  To  my  north  there  spread  a  limitless 
sea  of  sand  ;  the  shining  lines  of  steel  which  marked 
the  track  of  the  railway,  and  the  telegraph  poles 
running  at  its  side  alone  hinting  at  the  presence  of 
western  civilisation.  To  the  south  on  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  river  lay  Khartoum.  The  front,  which  is 
now  protected  from  the  ravages  of  the  yearly  flood 
by  a  sea-wall  for  the  greater  part  of  its  length,  was 
at  that  time,  save  for  a  few  yards  below  the  palace, 
entirely  bare  and  unprotected,  and  each  succeeding 
flood  carried  away  with  it  huge  portions  of  the 
crumbling  banks.  The  town  boasted  no  European 
shops  at  all. 

We  had  arrived  shortly  after  sunrise,  and  as,  with 
the  exception  of  the  tea  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  I  had  had  no  breakfast,  I  was  eagerly  looking 
forward  to  my  arrival  in  Khartoum,  where  I  imagined 
that  I  should  be  able  to  procure  food  before  going  on 
to  Omdurman.  But  my  dreams  of  bacon  and  eggs, 
and  other  luxuries  dear  to  the  heart  of  an  Englishman, 


4  FIVE   YEARS  IN  THE   SUDAN 

gave  place  to  a  nightmare  of  hunger  and  despair 
when  I  found  how  impossible  it  was  for  me  to  carry 
out  my  scheme,  and  I  had  to  fast  until  a  one  o'clock 
luncheon. 

Omdurman  was  at  that  time  the  mercantile  centre 
of  the  Sudan,  a  few  native  stalls  of  the  most  meagre 
description  constituting  the  entire  sphere  of  mer- 
chandise in  the  now  flourishing  capital.  Roads  were 
conspicuous  by  their  absence,  but  already  there  were 
evidences  of  that  careful  and  effective  scheme  for  the 
laying  out  of  the  city  on  modern  and  spacious  lines, 
which  gives  the  place  its  present-day  effect  of  health 
and  beauty.  The  river  bank,  and,  indeed,  the  greater 
part  of  the  town,  was  infested  with  mosquitoes ;  in 
short,  there  was  but  little,  either  in  its  appearance 
or  its  attributes,  to  impress  the  new  arrival  with  any 
idea  of  its  attractiveness,  except  the  natural  beauty 
of  the  palm  trees  to  which  I  have  already  alluded. 

Omdurman,  on  the  other  hand,  though  certainly 
possessing  no  claim  to  beauty,  was  infinitely  more 
interesting,  by  reason  of  the  teeming  native  element 
which  thronged  its  streets  and  markets.  Here,  at 
least  it  was  possible  to  gather  some  idea  of  the 
conditions  which  had  prevailed  before  the  battle 
of  Omdurman  led  to  the  abrupt  termination  of  the 
savage  and  tyrannical  rule  of  the  Mahdists  ;  here  one 
still  might  see  the  Sudanese  plying  their  trades  much 
in  the  manner  which  had  been  followed  ever  since  the 
first  spark  of  mechanical  and  industrial  enterprise 
had  been  ignited  in  the  country,  in  the  remote  days 
when  the  name  of  the  Sudan  still  conveyed  little  to 


FIEST   IMPRESSIONS  5 

the  minds  of  all  but  a  bare  handful  of  interested 
Englishmen.  I  have  said  that  it  was  the  centre  of 
mercantile  enterprise,  and  not  only  was  this  the  case, 
at  the  time  of  which  I  write  it  still  retained  its  position 
as  chief  port  of  the  Sudan ;  the  workshops  of  the 
Steamers  and  Boats  Department  were  situated  upon 
its  banks,  and  its  trade  and  general  prosperity  was, 
day  by  day,  increasing.  The  headquarters  of  the 
old  Gunboat  Department,  more  recently  known  as 
the  Steamers  and  Boats  Department  lay  to  the 
northern  end  of  the  town,  about  a  mile  north  of  the 
Bab  el  Khiblie,  and  the  houses  in  that  district  had, 
therefore,  been  saved  from  the  general  demolition 
which  had  laid  waste  a  great  portion  of  the  old  town 
upon  the  arrival  of  the  English.  These  were  now 
occupied  by  the  artisans  and  labourers  employed  in 
the  service  of  the  steamers,  or  about  the  dockyard. 
At  the  time  of  my  arrival,  the  Department  was 
busily  occupied  in  the  erection  of  a  floating  dock, 
which  had  been  ordered  by  Lord  Kitchener  some 
few  months  prior  to  his  departure  from  the  country. 
From  early  morning  until  sunset  the  place  rang  with 
the  sound  of  hammer  upon  steel  and  iron ;  but  it 
may  be  mentioned  here  that  the  native  workman 
lost  no  time  in  learning  those  tricks  of  the  trade 
which  are  so  popular  among  his  western  brethren, 
and  had  already  discovered  that  a  couple  of  small 
boys  energetically  engaged  in  hammering  away  on 
a  sheet  of  steel,  produces  quite  as  much  noise  as  if  the 
whole  gang  were  at  their  places  on  the  work.  Such 
a  method  possessed  the  advantage  of  being  very 


6  FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE  SUDAN 

much  easier.  The  old  steamers,  some  of  which  had 
been  steadily  in  service  since  the  early  days  of 
Gordon,  were  being  renovated  and  altered,  and  more 
boats  were  being  added  to  the  fleet,  as  quickly  as  the 
funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  Department  would  permit. 
The  gunboats,  which  performed  such  excellent  service 
at  the  battle  of  Kerreri,  had  lost  nothing  of  their 
importance  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives,  who  still 
regarded  them  with  feelings  of  wholesome  veneration 
and  fear. 

Life  in  the  Sukh,  or  Bazaars,  was  much  the  same 
as  it  had  been  in  the  days  which  preceded  the  British 
Occupation,  with,  however,  a  noticeable  difierence. 
It  was  no  longer  necessary  for  young  women  and 
girls  to  remain  in  the  seclusion  of  their  homes  in 
order  to  reduce  the  risk  of  being  discovered  by  the 
lynx-eyed  emissaries  of  the  KhaHfa,  who  were  under 
standing  orders  to  seize  any  of  the  younger  members 
of  the  female  population  who  bore  pretentions  to 
good  looks,  and,  in  the  name  of  the  great  Prophet 
Mohammed,  to  thrust  them  into  their  master's 
already  overcrowded  harem.  The  northern  Sudanese, 
though  of  course  professed  Mohammedans,  have 
never  recognised  the  law  which  obtains  in  other 
Moslem  countries,  in  relation  to  the  treatment  of  their 
women,  in  so  far  as  they  are  allowed  to  pass  through 
the  streets  unveiled,  and  are  constantly  to  be  met 
with  at  every  turn,  on  their  journeys  to  and  from 
the  river  or  wells,  for  their  daily  supply  of  water, 
or  about  the  Sukh,  making  their  purchases  of  flour 
and  other  necessaries  of  the  household.    The  Yashmak 


FIEST  IMPRESSIONS  7 

is  almost  unknown,  except  in  cases  where  fading 
beauty  has  suggested  its  use  as  the  only  remaining 
method  of  attracting  attention. 

Of  course,  a  large  number  of  the  women  of  the 
Sudan  had  no  higher  ambition  than  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  their  days  in  the  harem  of  the  "  holy  " 
man  who  ruled  them,  but  there  were  many  to  whom 
the  freedom  of  everyday  existence  offered  attractions 
of  greater  strength,  and  to  these  the  new  regime  was 
far  preferable,  as  under  it  they  could  now  make  their 
daily  rounds  of  the  markets  in  comparative  safety. 

Generations  passed  in  the  poising  of  water  jars, 
empty  or  full,  upon  their  heads,  has  endowed  the 
Sudanese  women  with  a  perfect  grace  and  freedom 
of  movement  which  is  very  attractive.  Their  dress 
usually  consists  of  two  broad  sheets  of  blue  or  white 
cotton  cloth,  one  of  which  is  bound  round  the  waist, 
and  falls  as  a  skirt,  the  other,  wrapped  round  the  head 
and  shoulders,  does  duty  as  a  blouse.  This  latter 
garment,  however,  is  frequently  either  dispensed 
with  altogether,  or  is  hung  in  such  a  careless  fashion 
as  to  lose  its  character  as  an  article  of  clothing. 
They  are  a  good-natured,  laughing  race,  living  for  the 
moment,  and,  untroubled  by  dreams  of  women's 
suffrage,  they  appear  to  be  supremely  happy  in  the 
serving  of  their  lords  and  masters.  It  cannot,  how- 
ever, be  said  that  considerations  of  moral  virtue 
play  any  conspicuous  part  in  the  lives  of  many  of  the 
inhabitants  of  at  least  the  more  northern  districts 
of  the  Sudan.  It  would,  indeed,  be  surprising  if 
the  case  were  otherwise,  since  the  whole  teaching. 


8  FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE   SUDAN 

or  at  least  example  of  the  Mahdi,  and  of  his  still 
more  vicious  successor,  the  Khalifa,  could  by  no 
stretch  of  imagination,  be  termed  moral.  Vice  of  the 
most  flagrant  description  was  a  matter  of  everyday 
occurrence,  and,  I  think  I  am  justified  in  asserting 
that  absolute  connubial  fidelity  was  practically 
unknown.  It  is  true  that  the  violation  of  matrimonial 
vows  seldom  occurred  among  families  who  were  on 
terms  of  mutual  friendship  ;  but  little  or  no  notice 
was  apparently  extended  to  sin,  should  the  offender 
be  a  stranger,  and  more  especially  should  he  be  of 
European  blood.  A  like  code  of  morality  is,  I  believe, 
not  uncommon  among  semi-savage  races  who  have 
been  under  the  ban  of  such  conquerors  as  the  Turks, 
who  carry  the  theory  that  "  might  alone  is  right " 
even  to  the  most  intimate  questions  of  domestic  life. 
It  must  also  be  admitted  that  the  average  Englishman, 
following  easily  along  the  lines  which  he  found 
prepared  for  him,  made  any  immediate  stamping  out 
of  this  evil  a  matter  of  great  difficulty. 

The  native,  quite  amenable  to  a  new  law  when  he  is 
satisfied  that  a  return  to  the  old  is  out  of  the  question, 
is  shrewd  enough  to  resent  hypocrisy  of  any  descrip- 
tion, and  treats  ideals,  which,  while  preached,  are 
without  support  in  practice,  with  scant  attention. 
The  Mohammedan  religion,  too,  in  recognising  the 
mere  desire  or  fancy  on  the  part  of  the  husband  as 
sufficient  justification  for  the  granting  of  a  peremptory 
divorce,  must  take  its  share  in  the  responsibility  for 
the  moral  lassitude  which  prevails  in  the  Sudan. 
There  are,  of  course,  innumerable  cases  in  which 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  9 

women  are  happily  married,  and  pass  the  remainder 
of  their  lives  as  honoured  wives  and  mothers,  but  on 
the  other  hand,  the  ceremony  of  marriage,  at  least  in 
so  far  as  it  applies  to  the  female,  carries  with  it  no 
guarantee  of  permanency  whatever.  A  hundred 
reasons  may  crop  up  which,  to  the  mind  of  the  hus- 
band, are  good  and  sufficient  on  which  to  base  his 
application  for  divorce ;  and  divorce  he  gets  ;  his 
rejected  wife,  in  being  repaid  her  marriage  portion,  is 
considered  to  have  received  ample  compensation  for 
the  separation.  What  wonder  then  that,  living 
perpetually  on  the  brink  of  a  volcano,  and  entirely 
subject  to  the  passing  whim  of  their  husbands,  in  so 
far  as  the  solidity  of  the  marriage  bond  is  concerned, 
they  are  prone  to  regard  a  moral  lapse  more  in  the 
light  of  an  incident  than  a  sin  ?  And  here,  again, 
in  the  question  of  divorce,  the  Englishman  is  not 
always  above  taking  advantage  of  a  system  which  is, 
or  ought  to  be,  entirely  foreign  to  his  principles, 
in  order  to  secure  to  himself  a  temporary  mate. 

Happily,  such  occurrences  are  not  frequent,  and, 
during  my  residence  in  the  Sudan,  I  came  across  two 
Englishmen  only,  who  had  contracted  marriages  with 
native  women.  Curiously  enough,  both  these  men 
are  now,  I  beUeve,  married  to  wives  of  their  own 
nationality.  I  am  not  quite  clear  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes marriage  in  the  eyes  of  the  English  law,  and 
what  does  not,  but  as  in  neither  of  the  above  cases 
does  there  appear  to  have  been  any  formal  divorce 
of  the  coloured  wife  before  the  second  marriage 
was  made,  I  presume  that  the  fact  of  one  of  the 


10  FIVE   YEARS   IN  THE  SUDAN 

contracting  parties  being  a  Mohammedan,  and  the 
ceremony  having  been  performed  according  to  Mo- 
hammedan rights  only,  nulhfies  the  contract  as  far 
as  Enghsh  law  is  concerned,  for  it  is  hardly  probable 
that  the  question  as  to  the  legitimacy  of  possible 
children  could  have  been  overlooked. 

There  are  very  few  of  the  Sudanese  women  of 
Khartoum,  and  other  northern  stations,  who  regard 
living  with  a  white  man  in  any  other  light  than  that 
of  an  honour,  and  in  the  early  days  of  the  English 
Occupation  of  the  country  there  were  but  few  white 
men  in  settled  positions  who  failed  to  confer  it. 
To  become  the  mother  of  a  fair-skinned  child  is  an 
event  which  is  eagerly  look  forward  to ;  there  is  no 
stigma  attached  to  it  in  the  minds  of  the  people, 
and  frequently  the  lack  of  such  a  child  is  regarded 
more  as  a  disgrace  than  as  a  virtue.  The  girls  marry 
when  they  are  very  young  ;  I  have  frequently  known 
them  married  at  the  age  of  ten  years  and  mothers  at 
eleven.  The  birth  of  a  man-child  as  the  first-born 
is  the  ambition  of  every  Sudanese  man  or  woman. 
Later,  the  birth  of  a  female  is  welcomed,  on  account 
of  the  marriage  portion  which  will  be  paid  to  her 
parents  when  she  finds  a  husband,  but  it  is  considered 
to  be  a  slur  on  the  honour  of  the  parents  if  the  first 
child  should  be  of  the  weaker  sex. 

There  are  all  shades  of  feminine  beauty  to  be  found 
in  the  native  quarters  of  Omdurman,  from  the  lightest 
yellow  to  ebony  black.  Among  the  children  there  is 
a  still  greater  range  of  colour ;  many  of  the  bare- 
footed httle  scallywags  which  one  sees  on  the  beach 


^  ■  /,A,  i 


J   '    -^ 


v,-.^ 


FIRST   IMPRESSIONS  11 

at  Omdurman  have  hair  of  gold  ;  many  of  them  have 
complexions  of  the  purest  white.  It  is  in  one  way 
a  pitiful  thing  to  see  these  offspring  of  western 
pioneers  left  untended  to  assimilate  the  characters 
and  defects  of  their  mothers'  race  ;  but  I  think  that 
if  such  things  must  be  at  all,  it  is  the  wiser  plan  to 
leave  them  from  the  first,  rather  than  run  the  risk 
of  blighting  the  happiness  of  a  future  generation 
by  removing  them  to  Europe.  I  know  of  one  case 
where  this  latter  course  has  been  taken ;  the  child 
was  left  to  her  mother  until  she  was  five  years  old, 
and  then  sent  to  England,  to  be  brought  up  as  an 
English  girl.  She  is  as  fair-skinned  as  the  fairest 
daughter  of  England,  but  her  mother  was  a  coal-black 
Sudanie,  and  it  is  terrible  to  think  of  the  possible 
results  which  may  occur  in  the  future  should  the 
child  marry  a  white  man  under  the  cloak  of  her  fair 
skin. 

The  men,  as  members  of  a  race  recently  subject 
to  the  rule  of  despots  who  lacked  all  the  essential 
principles  of  either  labour  or  routine,  struck  me  as 
being  particularly  smart  and  intelligent,  and  sub- 
sequent observations  did  nothing  to  alter  my  opinions 
on  this  point.  I  have  heard  it  argued  that  they  are 
both  obstinate  and  lazy,  and  this  statement,  while 
perhaps  bearing  more  than  a  modicum  of  truth,  has 
always  struck  me  as  being  an  exaggerated  and  unfair 
description  of  the  true  native  of  the  Sudan.  Admit- 
ting that  they  are  not  altogether  untroubled  by 
laziness ;  that  the  majority  of  them  would  prefer 
a  life  of  unchequered  ease  spent  among  their  families, 


12  FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE  SUDAN 

or  drowsing  away  their  hours  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile,  to  a  life  which  calls  them  to  their  work  with  the 
rising  sun,  and  which  apportions  their  daily  bread, 
their  much-loved  finery,  and  even  the  number  of  their 
wives,  to  the  sweat  of  their  labour ;  admitting  this, 
I  say,  I  still  fancy,  with  distinct  visions  of  sturdy 
corduroy-clad  giants  before  my  eyes,  that  the  race, 
in  this  predilection,  is  not  altogether  original. 

Again,  there  is  the  accusation  of  obstinacy  levied 
against  them  ;  but,  in  my  opinion,  they  are  obstinate 
only  under  circumstances  where  it  ceases  to  be  a 
fault.  They  hate  being  interfered  with,  and  have 
no  use  for  the  man  who  gives  an  order,  and  then 
alters  his  mind  concerning  it  half  a  dozen  times  in  as 
many  minutes.  Let  them  once  understand  what  is 
required  of  them,  and,  the  first  few  minutes  over, 
they  will  go  through  with  it  like  men.  I  have  seen 
a  gang  working  for  fourteen  hours  on  end,  hard  at  it, 
and  with  never  a  murmur  or  a  hint  at  the  fatigue 
which  they  must  have  experienced. 

The  spirit  of  emulation  is  strong  within  them, 
and  frequently  the  difiiculty  lies,  not  in  getting  them 
to  do  a  thing,  but  in  getting  them  to  leave  it  alone. 
And  in  regard  to  those  trades  where  deftness  of 
touch  and  a  capacity  for  thought  is  necessary  to 
secure  their  successful  accomplishment,  one  visit  to 
the  bazaars,  where  the  cotton  weaver,  the  jeweller, 
and  the  goldsmith  may  be  seen  at  work,  would  be 
sufficient  to  convince  the  greatest  doubter  that  the 
Sudanese  lack  neither  brains  nor  ingenuity.  With 
implements  so  crude  that  they  would  be  most  cer- 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  13 

tainly  cast  aside  as  useless  by  any  European  gold- 
smith or  jeweller,  the  native  of  the  Sudan  turns  out  the 
most  delicate  filigree  work,  often  to  a  pattern  of  his 
own  design,  with  a  rapidity  that  is  amazing.  His 
stock-in-trade  consists  more  often  than  not  of  a 
heavy-headed  hammer,  an  anvil  of  local  and  rough 
work,  and  a  melting-pot.  He  is,  indeed,  a  perfect 
example  of  patience  and  industry  combined,  and  an 
ever-present  refutation  to  accusations  of  indolence 
and  brainlessness. 

Such  were  the  impressions  which,  broadly  speaking, 
I  formed  regarding  the  people  of  the  Sudan,  and  I 
must  confess  that  the  people — in  the  first  instance — 
struck  me  as  being  more  agreeable  than  their  country. 

My  bed,  on  that  first  night,  was  laid  on  the  top 
deck  of  a  steamer,  under  the  naked  sky,  and  I 
remember  that  even  as  I  fell  asleep,  with  only  the 
occasional  sound  of  a  tom-tom  in  the  distance,  or  the 
bark  of  a  village  dog  as  it  greeted  the  rising  moon, 
my  sensations  had  already  begun  to  blend  them- 
selves to  the  magic  influences  of  Africa,  the  Africa 
of  the  African.  My  feelings,  however,  when  I  waked 
suddenly,  somewhere  in  the  early  hours  of  the 
morning,  to  find  myself  half-bhnded  by  a  particularly 
violent  sand-storm,  which  was  doing  its  best  to  rob 
me  of  all  the  scanty  bed-clothes  which  I  possessed, 
can  be  better  imagined  than  described. 

Dragging  my  bed  in  my  wake,  I  tumbled  down  to 
a  cabin  where  the  temperature  ranged  cheerfully 
at  anything  between  100°  and  1000°,  and  there, 
in  the  company  of  innumerable  mosquitoes,  who, 


14  FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE  SUDAN 

like  myself,  had  been  driven  to  shelter,  I  passed  the 
remainder  of  the  night,  to  wake  the  next  morning 
with  my  face  scarred  almost  beyond  recognition  by 
the  fond  attentions  of  my  energetic  companions  of 
the  cabin. 


CHAPTER  II 

OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDi's  TOMB 

WHEN,  shortly  after  the  battle  of  Omdurman, 
a  certain  worthy  Sudanese  mechanic  was 
handed  a  sovereign  as  payment  for  a  month's  services, 
he  took  it,  gazed  at  it  for  some  time,  and  then  laughed 
and  returned  it,  apparently  thinking  that  he  was  the 
victim  of  a  practical  joke.  The  idea  that  it  was  truly 
to  be  his,  because  he  had  earned  it,  never  entered 
his  head.  He  had  worked  at  the  same  job  for  years, 
first  as  the  slave  of  the  Mahdi,  and,  later,  of  the 
Khalifa,  with  no  recompense  other  than  grain  (when 
it  was  plentiful)  in  sufficient  quantity  to  keep  himself 
and  his  family  in  comparative  comfort ;  to  be  one 
day  the  actual  possessor  of  hard  cash  was  a  dream 
which  had  never  entered  his  head.  But  notwith- 
standing this,  it  did  not  take  a  very  long  time  to 
convince  him  of  his  good  fortune,  and  next  pay-day 
found  him,  shining  and  expectant,  the  first  to  greet 
the  cashier  when  he  arrived  with  the  money.  That 
first  day,  when  money  was  thrust  upon  an  un- 
comprehending native,  was  one  of  great  importance 
to  the  Sudan,  for  it  marked  the  initial  stage  of  re- 
newed prosperity.  It  was  then  that  the  small  Greek 
traders  began  to  reap  the  reward  of   the  patient 


16         FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

endurance  which  had  characterised  their  long  and 
dreary  sojourn  in  the  country.  Hitherto  poor  as 
the  poorest  Arab,  they  slowly  accumulated  money 
as  it  worked  its  way  to  their  stalls  through  the  hands 
of  the  prospering  artisans  and  labourers.  Little  by 
Uttle,  they  were  able  to  replenish  their  mouldering 
stock,  and  to  purchase  new  luxuries  in  the  shape 
of  the  sweetmeats  and  so  forth,  that  are  so  dear  to 
the  heart  of  the  native.  As  a  result  of  their  thrift 
and  enterprise,  they  now,  in  these  latter  days,  control 
nearly  all  the  mercantile  trade  in  the  Sudan.  Many 
had  been  left  in  the  country  at  the  time  of  the  death 
of  Gordon ;  others  followed  the  British  troops  as 
they  worked  their  way  through  the  burning  desert 
to  erase  that  blot  from  the  pages  of  English  history  ; 
all  were  seemingly  possessed  of  wonderful  endurance, 
and  a  still  more  wonderful  power  of  producing  cool 
soda  water  from  hot  sand  !  Alone  of  all  the  traders 
who  essayed  to  make  the  Sudan  their  goal,  the  Greek 
remained ;  and  his  foothold  once  estabhshed,  the 
rest  was  comparatively  easy.  To  the  very  best  of  his 
ability  he  anticipated  the  wants  of  his  English  patrons; 
if  it  were  possible  to  gratify  them  it  was  done  at 
once,  and  at  the  same  time  he  was  not  above  dealing 
with  his  native  clients  in  sums  which  a  less  enduring, 
or  more  fastidious  race  would  have  scorned. 

They  are  not  without  their  faults,  these  Greek 
traders,  but  at  least  it  can  be  said  that  their  presence 
in  the  Sudan  in  the  early  days  was  wellnigh  in- 
dispensable to  the  British  officers  and  troops ;  and, 
if  in  the  latter  times  of  plenty  they  have  shown  a 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDI'S  TOMB    17 

tendency  to  accelerate  their  wealth  by  a  little  smug- 
gling of  the  rankest  of  all  rank  spirits  into  the  hands 
of  the  natives,  they  have  borne  too  much  at  the  hands 
of  both  the  country  and  its  inhabitants  to  make  the 
offence  an  unforgivable  one.  The  more  prosperous 
of  the  Greeks  are,  of  course,  entirely  without  this 
little  weakness,  and  are,  indeed,  the  backbone  of  the 
commercial  Sudan. 

It  was  to  the  shop  of  one  of  these  Greeks  that 
I  repaired  on  the  first  day  of  my  arrival,  to  make 
the  necessary  purchases  for  a  trip  up  the  Nile. 
My  orders  were  that  I  was  to  return  within  the 
month,  but  the  officer  from  whom  I  took  my  in- 
structions, supplemented  them  by  a  wholesome  bit 
of  verbal  advice,  "  You  never  know  what  will  happen, 
so  you'd  better  lay  in  a  stock  for  six  months."  There- 
fore, as  soon  as  the  sun  became  fairly  passive  in  the 
west,  I  borrowed  a  horse  and  rode  to  Capato  ;  and 
the  first  part  of  the  evening  was  full  of  humiliation. 
It  must  be  understood  that  I  was  riding  in  a  very 
loose  pair  of  flannel  trousers  ;  the  horse  I  rode  had 
not  been  out  for  several  days,  and  was  determined 
to  enjoy  himself ;  and  the  saddle  on  which  I  was 
seated  was  the  first  one  that  I  had  ever  known 
without  knee  pads.  Therefore,  we  went  much  further 
into  the  desert  than  I  intended,  and  I  arrived  at  my 
destination  in  a  bath  of  perspiration,  and  feeling  very 
much  "  done  "  indeed.  Looking  at  it  calmly  now,  I 
think  that  it  was  forgivable,  but  I  did  not  think  so 
then.  I  was  young  ;  I  was  English,  and  I  was,  there- 
fore, one  of  the  lords  of  creation ;    and  yet,  those 


18  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

infernal  niggers  must  have  known  that  I  was  going 
where  I  did  not  want  to  go,  when  I  galloped  out  into 
the  setting  sun,  with  my  trousers  rucked  up  above 
my  knees,  and  one  foot  out  of  the  stirrup. 

It  is  astonishing  how  difficult  it  is  to  provide  for 
one's  self,  if  one  is  not  used  to  doing  so ;  I  must  have 
spent  a  good  hour  hard  at  work,  trying  to  decide  what 
to  buy  and  what  not  to  buy,  and  when  I  saw  the  boxes 
laden  with  my  provisions  being  hauled  on  board  the 
next  day,  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  surely  purchased 
a  little  of  everything,  for  there  appeared  to  be  no  end 
to  the  number  of  cases.  I  had  erred  on  the  right  side, 
however,  and  I  subsequently  had  every  reason  to  be 
thankful  for  this,  when  familiarity  with  the  country 
led  me  to  a  contempt  of  its  possibiHties ;  had  it  not 
been  for  a  few  remaining  tins  of  vegetables  and  fruit, 
bought  that  first  day,  I  should  have  been  forced  to 
live  on  the  meat  of  the  hippopotamus  alone. 

My  appointment  to  the  Sudan  had  been  very  un- 
expected ;  I  had  tried,  and  failed  to  secure  the 
position  in  former  days,  and  on  my  way  back  to  the 
steamer  from  the  market  I  heard,  for  the  first  time, 
of  the  occurrence  which  had  led  to  my  sudden 
appointment  now.  A  month  previously  there  had 
been  no  immediate  prospect  of  a  vacancy,  and  the 
post  that  I  now  occupied  had  been  held  by  a  young 
Enghshman,  ''  one  of  the  best,"  said  my  informant, 
but  a  man  who  had  not  been  built  for  solitude.  The 
insidious  companionship  of  liquor  had  taken  him 
in  its  relentless  grip,  and  the  end  had  been  speedy. 
Returning  from  a  prolonged  trip  up  the  White  Nile 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDFS  TOMB  19 

and  in  actual  sight  of  Khartoum,  he  had  been  over- 
come by  who  knows  what  sense  of  despair  or  de- 
gradation, and,  locking  himself  in  his  cabin,  had  put 
the  muzzle  of  his  rifle  into  his  mouth  and  ended  an 
existence  which  appeared  to  have  no  further  use  for 
him.  Thus  another  Englishman  had  gone  to  swell 
the  numbers  of  those  who  have  given  their  lives  in 
answer  to  the  appeal  of  the  ever-hungry  Sudan. 
It  was  not  a  glorious  death  perhaps,  but  who  shall 
say  that  any  life  is  given  in  vain,  and  it  may  well  be 
that  the  picture  of  that  life  which  had  gone  under, 
was  not  without  its  effect  upon  those  who,  in  later 
days,  were  tempted  to  apply  to  the  brandy  or  whisky 
bottle,  when  the  gloom  of  the  great  black  swamps 
lay  heavily  upon  their  minds,  and  life  seemed  to  hold 
but  little  other  attraction  than  that  which  lay  in  the 
glittering  gold  of  the  liquid  so  near  at  hand ;  which  held 
at  least  the  magic  power  of  inducing  sleep  and  for- 
getfulness  ?  An  extended  knowledge  of  the  country 
is  gradually  but  surely  reducing  the  number  of  small 
white  crosses  which,  year  by  year,  rise  to  mark 
the  last  resting-place  of  the  white  man,  slain  by  the 
murderous  desolation  of  the  country,  by  the  touch 
of  its  fevers,  or  by  the  hands  of  its  inhabitants. 

Even  the  seemingly  indestructible  mosquito  is  now 
losing  his  hold  on  the  country,  at  least  in  those 
districts  where  the  white  men  gather  and  form  their 
towns  ;  but  to  the  south  there  still  remains  some 
two  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  swamp  to  be 
reckoned  with,  and  still  on  its  borders  the  white 
man  pitches  his  tent,  east  and  west,  and  north  and 


20  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

south  of  it,  and  labours  untiringly  that  the  blood 
of  his  fellows  shall  not  have  been  shed  in  vain. 

I  heard  the  tale  of  the  dead  as  we  rode  slowly  down 
the  uneven  track  which  led  to  the  river.  On  either 
side  there  crumbled  the  ruins  of  that  wall  which  had, 
such  a  very  short  time  before,  been  the  pride  of  the 
Mahdists,  the  centre  of  their  power,  and  the  home  of 
tyranny  and  fanaticism.  The  past  was  all  very  near  ; 
it  seemed  but  a  week  since  I  had  heard  my  father 
reading  aloud  the  telegram  which  had  caused  a 
shudder  to  run  through  England,  as  it  was  realised 
that  the  stains  of  indecision  and  delay  had  left  an 
indelible  mark  on  the  page  of  history  at  last,  and  that 
one  of  the  most  fearless  men  of  our  time  had  died  a 
victim  to  the  quibbling  hesitancy  of  the  Government 
which  had  sent  him  forth  to  his  doom.  ''  Khartoum 
Fallen,"  "  Gordon  Dead  " — the  head-Hnes  stood  out 
distinctly  against  the  silver  of  the  sky  to-night,  yet 
the  reign  of  his  murderers  was  over,  and  around  me 
lay  the  ruins  of  the  city  they  had  raised. 

Late  that  night,  or,  rather,  it  was  late  for  the 
Sudan,  about  half-past  nine,  I  left  my  boat  after  an 
excellent  dinner  and  wandered  up  towards  the  Sukh. 
The  portion  of  the  town  near  the  river  was  absolutely 
still,  but  as  I  neared  the  market-place  a  figure  would 
start  suddenly  out  of  the  darkness  close  at  hand,  and 
pass,  barefooted  and  silent,  along  the  road.  Round 
the  wells  belated  water-carriers  still  gathered,  gossip- 
ing as  they  filled  their  jars,  and,  gradually,  as  I  walked 
on,  sound  became  more  general,  and  the  glare  of 
lights  informed  me  that  I  was  nearing  the  Piccadilly 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDI'S  TOMB    21 

Circus  of  Omdurman.  No  sooner  had  I  made  my 
appearance  in  the  large  square,  where  people  of  all 
colours,  grades,  and  conditions  congregate  at  night, 
than  I  was  besieged  by  dozens  of  yelling  donkey-boys, 
but  as  I  knew  only  two  words  of  Arabic  at  that  time, 
moyyah  and  herema,  which  mean  respectively,  water, 
and  cork-screw,  and  as  the  boys,  on  the  other  hand, 
lacked  even  this  amount  of  EngUsh,  it  is  doubtful, 
though  we  talked  a  lot,  whether  we  were  any  the 
wiser  for  our  endeavours.  I  was  tired,  and  I  thought 
it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  ride  back,  and  I  wanted 
to  tell  a  boy  with  a  good  donkey  to  wait  for  me. 
However,  I  decided  at  last  that  it  would  be  probably 
less  tiring  if  I  walked.  And  I  was  glad  afterwards 
that  I  had  done  so,  for  I  shall  never  forget  the  glory 
of  the  night  as  the  moon  rose  on  the  stillness.  I  was 
walking  home,  and  I  was  in  a  much  better  position 
to  appreciate  it  on  foot  than  I  would  have  been  on  a 
donkey  several  sizes  too  small — they  are  all  like  that 
in  the  Sudan — and  with  a  small  boy  keeping  up  a 
perpetual  chorus  of  encouragement  in  the  rear. 
Eventually  I  got  so  used  to  the  donkeys  of  the 
country  that  I  attained  a  high  proficiency  in  the  art 
of  simply  stepping  off  when  the  donkey  fell  beneath 
me,  but  that  was  only  after  repeated  disasters  in 
most  of  the  public  places  of  Omdurman. 

Coming  suddenly  into  this  crowded,  noisy  square, 
from  the  comparative  silence  of  the  lane  whicli  leads 
to  it  from  the  river,  was  like  emerging  from  the  sub- 
way at  the  Bank  into  one  of  London's  most  busy 
thoroughfares.    The  cafes  were  still  teeming  with  life, 


22  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

and  I  sat  down  at  one  of  these  for  a  few  minutes 
before  returning  to  the  boat.  Most  of  the  people 
were  playing  towler,  a  Greek  game,  very  similar  to 
backgammon,  but  here  and  there  one  would  see  a 
family  quietly  talking  together  as  they  sipped  their 
cofiee.  One  of  these  families  caught  my  attention 
at  once,  and  again  the  history  of  the  Sudan  rose 
insistently  before  my  eyes.  For  the  father  was  a 
Greek,  a  trader  who  had  been  left  in  the  country 
when  it  fell  into  the  clutches  of  the  Mahdi,  and  the 
mother  was  a  Sudanie  of  the  very  blackest  type. 
The  children  were  nondescript,  some  of  them  very 
dark-skinned,  some  of  them  more  Greek  than 
Sudanese  in  appearance.  Everyone  was  forced  to 
marry  under  the  rule  of  the  Mahdi,  and  a  poor  Greek 
could  not  choose,  he  would  be  lucky  if  he  escaped 
being  given  one  of  the  less  desirable  women  of  the 
town  to  wife.  There  could  be  no  refusal ;  it  was  the 
will  of  the  Mahdi. 

One  of  the  greatest  attractions  of  the  Sudan  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  nights  are  seldom  so  hot  as  to 
interfere  with  one's  rest,  and  to-night  as  I  neared 
the  river,  I  felt  that  I  had  seldom  been  out  in  such  a 
perfect  atmosphere.  A  Hght  breeze  had  sprung  up 
since  I  left  the  boat  earlier  in  the  evening ;  cool  and 
life-giving,  it  fanned  the  last  heat  of  the  day  from  the 
face  of  the  earth,  leaving  it  refreshed  and  still.  The 
moon  was  as  yet  too  weak  to  dim  the  brightness  of 
the  ghttering  canopy  of  stars,  which  shed  their  silver 
points  of  Ught  upon  a  tranquil,  happy  people,  only 
recently  rescued  from  the  horrors  of  a  rule  which 


OMDUKMAN  AND  THE  MAHDFS  TOMB  23 

relied  upon  the  fear  which  it  inspired  as  its  only  safety, 
and  upon  its  cruelty  as  its  only  strength.  The  place 
was  seemingly  absolutely  deserted,  and  it  was  with 
a  start  that  the  call  of  a  sentry  aroused  me  to  a 
realisation  of  present  circumstances  as  I  reached  my 
boat.  I  called  my  boy  to  bring  me  a  drink,  forgetting 
for  the  moment  that  my  beloved  Hassan  had  de- 
parted, and  that  I  was  left  to  the  mercies  of  a  servant 
who  could  not  understand  a  single  word  I  uttered. 
Hassan,  the  boy  whom  I  had  brought  up  from 
Alexandria  with  me,  and  whose  chief  virtue  lay  in  the 
fact  that  he  could  speak  my  language,  had  been 
promptly  taken  away  from  me  by  a  well-meaning 
friend,  who  assured  me  that  the  only  way  in  which 
to  learn  the  language  of  the  country,  was  to  have 
Arabic-speaking  attendants  about  me.  I  had  not 
the  remotest  idea  where  the  whisky  was,  so  after 
much  searching  I  found  my  vocabulary,  and  hunted 
the  word  out,  only  to  find  in  the  end  that  it  was  the 
same  in  Arabic  as  it  was  in  English. 

I  dreamed  that  night  that  I  was  walking  a  field 
strewn  with  mutilated  dead,  while  innumerable 
crowds  of  donkey  boys  strove  to  revive  the  corpses 
with  whisky. 

Omdurman  is  equally  fascinating  by  daytime,  in 
its  savage,  barbaric  sort  of  manner.  As  a  capital 
of  one  of  the  largest  dominions  in  the  world,  it  is 
distinctly  disappointing,  when  one  considers  that  the 
Mahdi  and  the  Khalifa  had  so  many  white  men 
constant  prisoners  for  years.  I  almost  expected 
to  see  a  city  which  would  bear  some  resemblance, 


24         FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

however  slight,  to  the  lesser  towns  of  Europe,  but 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  buildings  with  corrugated 
iron  roofs,  the  town  had  been  run  up  anyhow,  and  the 
Khalifa's  house  itself  was  of  the  meanest  description. 
If  evidence  were  needed  to  prove  the  degrading  influ- 
ence which  the  Khahfa  had  upon  the  subjects  whom 
he  ruled,  the  state  of  the  town  at  his  death  would 
be  sufficient  to  convince  the  most  doubting.  The 
Sudanese  have,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  imitative 
faculty  strongly  developed,  and  had  already  made 
marvellous  strides  in  the  direction  of  civilisation, 
even  at  the  time  of  my  arrival,  a  very  short  time 
after  the  downfall  of  Mahdism. 

It  always  amused  me  when  I  caught  a  glimpse  of 
my  servant's  box  ;  it  contained  nearly  all  his  worldly 
possessions,  but  it  was  a  model  of  neatness  and  colour. 
All  the  coloured  pictures  from  the  various  magazines 
which  I  had  discarded  were  carefully  cut  out  and  put 
away ;  the  more  glaring,  usually  those  of  startHng 
females,  were  nailed  to  the  inside  of  the  cover,  and 
he  had  therefore  only  to  open  his  box  to  have  his 
picture  gallery  before  his  eyes.  At  the  time  when 
I  first  arrived  in  the  Sudan  I  was  the  victim  of  a  per- 
nicious habit  of  wearing  red  socks  constantly ;  the 
rest  of  my  costume,  including  my  helmet  and  boots, 
was  entirely  white.  One  morning  my  breakfast  was 
very  late.  I  made  as  searching  an  inquiry  into  the 
cause  as  my  limited  command  of  the  language  would 
permit,  and  satisfied  myself  that  the  cook  had  not 
returned  from  the  Sukh.  I  also  gathered  from  various 
gesticulations  indulged  in  by  my  smaller  boy,  that 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDFS  TOMB  25 

my  precious  chef  was  engaged  in  buying  clothes  for  his 
own  adornment.  Fuming,  I  awaited  his  arrival,  but 
when  at  last  he  appeared  at  the  top  of  the  bank  my 
fury  left  me ;  he  was  funny  enough  to  deserve  for- 
giveness. He  had  been  making  purchases,  and  what 
is  more,  he  had  stayed  in  the  shop  to  change  into  his 
new  finery.  He  walked  majestically  down  towards 
the  boat,  swinging  a  cane.  His  tarboosh  had  been 
discarded  for  a  turban  of  white,  he  wore  a  short  white 
coat  of  European  cut,  the  loose  white  drawers  of  the 
country,  brilKant  red  socks,  and  white  shoes  ;  indeed, 
as  far  as  I  could  see,  we  differed  only  in  that  he  bore 
a  much-used  dish-cloth  in  the  hand  unoccupied  by  the 
cane.  A  few  yards  behind  him  laboured  a  small  boy, 
carrying  a  basket  which  bristled  with  promises  of 
food  at  last.  Judging  from  the  size  of  the  basket, 
and  the  apparent  weight  of  its  contents,  there  was 
food  sufficient  to  feed  a  battalion,  and  there  was 
truly  enough  to  keep  a  large  family  in  plenty ;  the 
Sudanese  cook  is  not  always  provident  where  another 
man's  pockets  are  concerned.  But  the  real  Sudanie 
is  a  good  servant,  and,  after  all,  food  was  very 
cheap  in  those  days,  before  the  demand  was  anything 
like  equal  to  the  supply.  Even  in  Omdurman,  where 
things  were  comparatively  expensive,  one  could  buy 
good  fresh  eggs  for  a  small  piastre,  or  a  penny  a  dozen. 
They  were  small,  but  they  were  wholesome,  though 
in  consequence  of  their  plentifulness,  one  met  eggs 
at  every  meal,  until  at  last  it  became  necessary  for 
me  to  impose  a  fine  if  they  appeared  in  any  form 
that  I  could  recognise  them  in,  more  than  once  a  day. 


26         FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

My  first  servant  was  a  willing  boy  enough,  but  he 
certainly  lacked  enterprise  in  his  work,  and  would 
have  been  perfectly  happy  had  I  only  wished  to  live 
on  from  day  to  day  without  a  change  of  menu. 
Creme  caramel  was  a  very  favourite  dish  of  his,  and 
I  loved  it  at  first.  It  is  a  very  popular  dish  every- 
where in  Egypt  and  the  Sudan,  and  I  have  never 
known  it  cooked  to  such  perfection  as  when  by  a 
native  cook.  But  a  few  months  of  creme  caramel,  and 
practically  nothing  else  in  the  way  of  sweets,  sufficeth 
any  man  ;  it  more  than  sufficed  for  me,  and  even  to 
this  day  the  memory  of  it  has  not  departed,  and  it  is 
the  only  sweet  that  I  have  met  that  I  cannot  eat  now. 

As  I  was  to  leave  for  the  South  the  next  day,  I 
spent  the  latter  portion  of  my  first  day  in  wandering 
about  the  town,  with  my  boy  as  guide.  We  went  up 
to  the  Mahdi's  tomb  first ;  I  suppose  he  thought 
that  that  was  the  proper  place  to  take  a  loyal  English- 
man to  begin  with.  It  looked  desolate  enough  in  its 
ruined  isolation,  and  it  was  very  evident  from  the 
filth  of  its  surroundings,  that  it  was  not  regarded  with 
much  sentiment  by  the  native  of  that  generation, 
anyway ;  I  have  seldom  been  in  a  more  nauseous 
enclosure  than  that  which  surrounded  the  erstwhile 
resting-place  of  the  Sudan's  chosen  Mahdi.  The 
corpse,  of  course,  had  gone ;  exhumed  by  the  con- 
querors, it  had  been  cast  into  the  river,  and  for  all 
we  know  was  carried  away  by  the  rising  flood  to  find 
its  last  resting-place  in  the  sea.  The  body  was 
snatched  from  its  tomb  by  the  deliberate  order  of  those 
in  authority,  and  the  monument  which  had  risen  to 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDFS  TOMB  27 

its  honour  knew  the  bones  of  the  dead  no  more.  It 
was  done  in  cold  blood ;  it  was  done  after  due 
consideration  ;  and  with  all  my  heart  I  say  that  the 
doing  of  the  thing  was  right.  I  had  heard  of  the  work 
while  in  England,  and  I  had  perhaps  regarded  it  as 
a  blot  on  a  career  of  brilliance  and  of  mercy,  but  under 
the  sun  of  the  Sudan  the  incident  assumed  a  truer 
Kght,  as  in  native  surroundings  the  veil  of  sentiment 
was  raised,  and  the  stern  demands  of  circumstance 
and  necessity  stood  stark  before  my  eyes.  It  is  so 
easy  to  sit  at  home  and  criticise ;  it  is  so  easy  to 
accord  the  patronage  of  one's  approbation,  and  still 
more  easy  to  allocate  the  blame.  Oh,  you  man  in 
the  street,  you  will  have  much  to  answer  for  when 
the  history  of  England  is  passed  for  review  before 
the  meditative  gaze  of  future  generations  !  Never 
has  England  been  so  ignorantly  callous  to  her  own 
interests  as  she  is  in  the  present  century.  Perhaps 
this  ignorance  is  the  more  noticeable  since  a  cheap 
Press  has  voiced  the  opinions  of  those  men  who,  in 
former  days,  were  left  to  whine  unheeded ;  those 
hysterical  productions  of  latter  days,  the  individuals 
who  would  cramp  the  Empire  into  the  petty  sphere 
of  their  own  suburban  gardens  if  only  such  a  thing 
were  practicable,  and  who  are  ever  on  the  watch  for 
an  opportunity  to  raise  their  dismal  howls  on  high 
in  condemnation  of  the  nation  which — Heaven  pity 
it — gave  them  birth.  Loyalty  and  devotion  are 
words  which  have  been  omitted  from  their  vocabu- 
lary ;  pride  of  race,  they  know  it  not ;  and  they  are 
never  happy  unless  they  are  championing  the  cause 


28  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

of  a  coloured  "  brother  "  of  whom  they  know  less 
than  nothing,  or  damning  the  actions  of  any  English- 
man who  dares  to  act  with  the  spirit  of  his  forefathers. 

Of  all  the  presumably  educated  men  in  Parliament, 
who  added  their  voices  to  the  outcry  which  was 
raised  against  Kitchener,  when  a  rumour  of  the 
violation  of  the  Mahdi's  tomb  became  known  in 
England,  how  many  had  ever  seen  a  black  man  in  his 
native  element,  how  many  had  even  taken  the  trouble 
to  read  the  whole  miserable  story  of  the  Sudan  right 
through  ?  I  guarantee  that  there  was  a  very  small 
percentage  of  either.  "  Oh,  let  us  be  humane,"  they 
cry,  as  they  lounge  smugly  through  their  lives  at 
home.  "  Oh,  let  us  be  humane  and  brotherly."  Yes, 
my  friends ;  but  go  and  talk  to  your  brethren  in 
their  stronghold  ;  sit  by  the  embers  of  a  smouldering 
fanaticism,  and  carry  your  precepts  into  effect  with 
your  dearly  beloved  there.  Pat  the  native  on  the 
back  as  you  explain  to  him  that,  after  all,  you  are  no 
better  than  he ;  shake  the  black  man  by  the  hand, 
and  watch  the  dawn  of  his  contempt,  and  continue 
your  smiles  if  you  dare.  Go  out  and  carry  your 
doctrines  into  the  dead  sea  shores  of  savagery  for  a 
few  short  years,  and  then  go  home  and  continue  your 
preaching  an  you  will. 

But  to  return  to  the  Mahdi.  He  was,  it  must  be 
remembered,  a  prophet,  the  chosen  one  of  God.  His 
relics  were  coveted  as  relics  of  a  Deity  ;  his  tomb  was 
the  indestructible  resting-place  of  a  man  with  super- 
human gifts.  Such  was  the  behef  in  the  Sudan  when 
thirty    thousand    men    rushed    into    the    teeth    of 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDFS  TOMB  29 

destruction  on  the  battlefield  of  Kerreri,  dying  to 
preserve  the  integrity  of  their  belief.  They  were 
beaten,  and  those  who  remained  of  the  hosts  which 
had  gone  forth  to  the  fight,  admitted  their  defeat, 
and  greeted  the  British  troops,  on  their  arrival  at  the 
capital,  with  every  token  of  friendship  :  "  The  King 
is  dead,  long  live  the  King  !  "  But  it  would  have 
been  absurd  to  imagine  that  the  satisfied  fanaticism 
of  a  decade  would,  o:  indeed,  could,  die  in  a  few  short 
hours.  The  mastery  of  the  moment  had  been  gained, 
but  it  was  necessary  to  stamp  out  with  as  heavy  a 
tread  as  possible,  every  remnant  of  the  superstition 
which  had  made  the  reconquest  of  the  Sudan  a 
necessity.  There  was,  practically  speaking,  no  blood- 
shed after  the  last  stand  had  been  made  on  the  field 
of  Kerreri ;  I  am  speaking  now  of  the  days  which 
immediately  followed  that  decisive  battle,  and  not, 
of  course,  of  the  later  times,  when,  the  Khalifa  made 
one  last  futile  attempt  to  regain  his  fallen  prestige. 
It  was  simply  a  clear  march  through  into  the  late 
stronghold  of  the  enemy,  but  there  was  a  risk,  one  of 
absolute  necessity,  I  admit,  but  still,  there  was  a  risk 
in  the  very  moderation  displayed  by  our  troops 
on  their  entry  to  the  town.  For  the  savage  is  not 
accustomed  to  moderation  on  the  part  of  victorious 
armies,  and  the  Sudanese,  when  the  troops  entered 
their  city  that  day,  were  nothing  more  or  less  than 
savages  pure  and  simple. 

It  turned  out  all  right ;  a  steady  eye  will  do 
much  to  hold  primitive  nature  in  check  ;  but  there 
is  no  gainsaying  the  fact  that,  not  once,  but  fre- 


30  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

quently,  our  men  were  in  positions  of  the  gravest 
risk  ;  there  were  times  when  threatening  looks  were 
cast  by  hundreds  of  men  upon  the  small  bands  of 
English  in  various  parts  of  the  town.  But  these 
small  bands  passed  through  the  heart  of  the  city 
unheeding ;  conscious  though  they  assuredly  were  that 
by  staying  their  hands  they  increased  the  danger 
of  an  attack,  they  marched  through  the  town 
more  like  bands  of  tourists  than  the  units  of  a  con- 
quering army.  Kitchener  knew  how  far  to  go  in  his 
moderation,  but  he  also  knew  when  it  was  time  to 
disclose  the  iron  hand.  He  chose  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  further  bloodshed,  by  turning  his 
attention  to  the  dead,  rather  than  to  the  destruction 
of  the  living.  The  Mahdi's  tomb  was  said  to  be 
indestructible  ;  he  had  made  it  understood  before  his 
death  that  it  would  be  so.  In  addition  to  this,  it  stood, 
the  s5anbol  of  revolt,  an  ever-present  incentive  to 
future  rebelHon  in  the  name  of  religion.  The  gun- 
boats pounded  it  with  shells  from  the  river,  and  the 
glory  of  its  dome  was  destroyed ;  but  under  the  debris 
lay  the  body  of  the  prophet,  the  Mahdi  of  the  elect. 

Consider  the  situation.  A  few  short  hours  before 
a  horde  of  men,  constituting  practically  the  whole 
population  of  the  Sudan,  had  been  ready  and 
wilHng  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  the  memory  of  this 
man  whose  bones  lay  mouldering  in  Omdurman. 
Superior  forces  of  arms  and  civilisation  had  devas- 
tated their  army,  and  obliged  them  to  acknowledge 
defeat,  but  was  it  likely  that  of  the  thousands  who 
remained,  there  were  many  who  did  not  still  burn 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDFS  TOMB  31 

with  the  fire  of  a  lingering  fanaticism,  who  would  not 
have  turned  the  tables  on  their  victors  had  they  been 
able  ?  They  had  suffered  defeat,  but  their  belief 
in  the  Mahdi  was  not  yet  dead,  and  their  sympathies 
were  all  against  the  conquerors.  They  regarded 
the  forbearance  of  the  victorious  hosts  with  an  ever- 
increasing  wonder ;  not  thus  would  the  entry  into 
a  defeated  capital  have  been  made  had  the  victory 
been  on  the  other  side ;  death  was  the  legitimate 
penalty  of  defeat,  death  to  man,  woman,  and  child, 
that  is  to  say,  to  all  who  lacked  sufficient  attractions 
of  personal  beauty  to  recommend  them  to  a  lustful 
clemency. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  a  vigorous  step  had  to 
be  taken  to  prevent  the  possibiHty  of  an  immediate 
relapse  into  rebellion,  and  the  demolition  of  the 
Mahdi's  tomb  promised,  not  only  to  safeguard  our 
army  from  any  suspicion  of  weakness  ;  it  also  pro- 
mised to  destroy  much  religious  sentiment,  which 
would  constitute  our  chief  danger  in  future  days. 
It  was  therefore  decided  that  the  body  of  the  so-called 
prophet  must  be  removed,  and  his  tomb  desecrated. 
The  natives  heard  of  the  decision,  and  sullenly  they 
watched  for  its  fulfilment.  Would  the  Christians 
dare  ?  Yes,  they  dared  :  and  it  is  to  that  act,  cruel, 
terrible  though  it  may  seem  to  be,  that  we  owe 
the  many  years  of  comparative  quiet  which  have 
marked  the  progress  of  events  in  the  Sudan  since 
that  day. 

The  Mahdi  had  promised  a  place  of  pilgrimage 
that  would  last  for  ever  ;  the  object  of  the  pilgrimage 


32  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

was  cast  to  swiftly-flowing  waters,  and  the  tomb  which 
had  held  it  crumbled  to  the  earth  under  the  fire  of 
avenging  guns.  Therefore  the  Mahdi  lied  ;  was  his 
power  so  wonderful  after  all  ?  The  seed  of  doubt 
planted  by  the  incident  germinated  with  rapidity. 
As  it  was  seen  that  Heaven  made  no  sign,  the  Sudanese 
left  the  ruins  of  the  tomb  to  decay,  and  forgot  the 
sentiment  which  had  engendered  its  erection.  I  repeat 
— the  thing  was  right ;  it  was  a  necessary  act — of 
barbarism  if  you  will — but  destined  to  put  the  final 
restraint  upon  that  genuine  barbarism  which  we  had 
poured  forth  both  blood  and  money  to  check.  Among 
civilised  races  such  an  action  would  be  unthinkable, 
impossible  ;  but  we  were  not  dealing  with  a  civilised 
race,  and  the  end  has  fully  justified  the  means. 

So  desolate  was  the  place  on  the  day  that  I  first 
saw  it,  that  it  was  hard  to  reahse  that  it  had  once  been 
the  centre  of  the  Sudan's  endeavour,  the  jewel  that 
thousands  of  men  had  cheerfully  given  up  their  lives 
to  guard.  But  within  a  few  yards  of  the  tomb  itself, 
on  a  wall  outside  the  enclosure,  there  is  a  well-polished 
plate  of  brass,  set  to  the  memory  of  the  Hon.  Hubert 
Howard,  special  correspondent  to  The  Times,  through 
the  expedition,  who  was  killed  by  a  stray  shot  from 
one  of  our  own  gunboats  just  as  dusk  was  falling  on 
the  day  that  gave  us  back  the  Sudan — and  our  honour. 

Here  was  the  reminder  to  call  wandering  thoughts 
to  a  sense  of  the  reality  of  war ;  here  was  the  re- 
minder, grim,  and  silent  and  real.  I  do  not  know 
why  it  should  be  that  the  isolated  cases  of  destruc- 
tion are  ever  more  prone  to  make  one  think  than  a 


OMDURMAN  AND  THE  MAHDI'S  TOMB  33 

visit  to  a  battlefield  where  thousands  of  human  bones 
lie  rotting  beneath  the  empty  sky.  Perhaps  one's 
soul  is  yet  too  small  to  appreciate  the  devastation 
of  slaughter,  while  the  soUtary  death  is  the  thing 
that  we  have  all  known,  and  knowing,  have  learned 
to  respect.  A  reader  will  glance  through  the  account 
of  an  explosion,  or  of  a  fire  at  which  hundreds  have 
perished,  with  scarcely  more  than  a  passing  thought 
"  how  terrible,"  but  they  will  read  the  news  of  a 
solitary  man  or  woman  who  has  been  knocked  over 
or  killed  in  the  street,  or  who  died  from  some  like 
cause,  with  a  quiver  of  pity ;  it  is  there,  it  may 
happen  to  us  any  day,  but  with  the  other  it  is  past  and 
over,  and  the  world  is  running  on  the  same  old  beaten 
track  once  more.  And  so  it  was  that  the  sight  of 
that  brass  plate  glittering  in  the  sunhght  brought 
with  it  a  realisation  more  poignant  than  the  clank- 
ing chains  at  Haifa,  the  ruined  city  of  Omdurman, 
had  done,  and  I  grasped  the  meaning  of  war  for  the 
moment  to  the  full. 

Close  at  hand  there  stood  the  house  of  the  Khalifa 
itself,  now  the  residence  of  a  British  officer,  and  a 
poor  quarter  enough  it  made.  Lord  !  what  a  coun- 
try to  fight  for,  what  a  harvest  of  tares  to  reap  ! 
But  still,  I  liked  it — desolate,  forsaken,  forlorn 
Omdurman ;  I  liked  it  then,  and  when,  some  five 
years  later,  the  fever  of  its  provinces  was  driving  me 
an  exile  from  the  land,  I  liked  it  still.  For  it  lives 
in  a  bath  of  red-gold  sun,  and  in  the  shadow  and 
the  silence  of  its  more  deserted  districts  there  is  a 
charm  that  is  not  to  be  met  with  elsewhere.     It  is 


34  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

not  the  charm  of  Egypt,  for  there  is  nothing  of  age 
in  its  ruins  of  sun-dried  brick,  there  is  nothing  of  art 
in  its  crumbHng  walls  ;  but  there  is  the  presence  of 
that  voice  which  lives  only  in  the  wildest,  most 
desolate  spots  of  nature,  the  voice  which  repeats 
the  well-worn  words  so  familiar  to  us  in  our  child- 
hood :  "  As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and 
ever  shall  be,  world  without  end.    Amen/' 

It  gives  one  the  impression  that  the  passing  of  the 
ages  has  been  productive  of  but  little  change,  and  in 
this  I  think  lies  its  fascination,  for  we  of  the  new 
generation  have  grown  so  immune  to  change  that  we 
pass  it  by  unheeded,  even  though  it  may  be  laying  the 
foundations  of  a  wonderful  future.  Further  south 
there  is  the  constant  hum  of  the  insect  world,  and 
though  it  would  be  hard  to  locate  it,  the  air  is  really 
never  uncharged  by  sound  ;  here,  however,  even  in 
the  daytime  it  was  possible  to  stand  in  a  silence  that 
was  absolute,  a  silence  that  the  drone  of  a  wander- 
ing insect  would  be  suflficient  to  break  with  a  sudden- 
ness that  was  almost  painful,  like  a  discord  breaking 
into  one  of  the  melodies  of  the  great  masters.  It 
fascinated  me  immensely  that  first  day ;  but  life 
and  sound  were  far  more  to  the  taste  of  my  guide, 
and  he  evidently  began  to  wish  that  he  had  not  led 
me  into  the  temptation  of  this  spot,  for  he  became 
very  restless  and,  as  far  as  I  could  understand,  inti- 
mated that  there  were  other  places  of  far  greater 
interest  close  at  hand. 

At  last  I  followed  him,  and  in  a  very  few  minutes 
we  were  in  the  heart  of  the  native  city  again,  with 


OMDURMAN  .AND  THE  MAHDI'S  TOMB    35 

its  water  carriers,  its  donkey  boys,  its  chattering 
women,  and  its  silent-footed  camels  passing  to  and 
fro  with  grain.  There  were  many  lower-class  Greeks 
and  Levantines  about,  but  during  the  whole  time 
that  I  was  out  that  afternoon  I  did  not  see  a  single 
EngHshman  ;  the  place  might  still  have  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  Sudanese  for  all  one  saw  of  the  new 
rulers.  Occasionally,  it  is  true,  we  passed  an  Egyptian 
soldier  in  the  uniform  of  his  army,  and  when  we  did 
see  him  it  always  struck  me  that  he  was  walking 
about  more  as  though  he  was  an  intruder  than  as  if 
he  was  actually  the  master  of  the  situation.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Sudanese  have  never  regarded  the 
Egyptians  as  their  masters,  or  their  conquerors  either. 
They  look  upon  them  as  an  inferior  race,  a  race  that 
would  long  ago  have  been  overcome  by  the  troops 
of  Mahdism  had  it  not  been  for  foreign  intervention 
and  assistance.  The  Egyptians,  we  are  told,  fought 
splendidly  at  the  capture  of  the  Sudan,  and  I  can 
quite  believe  this  to  be  true,  for  they  were  fighting 
with  the  British  to  lead  them,  and  they  placed  an 
implicit  trust  in  their  commanders.  But  the  Egyp- 
tian officer  is,  I  should  imagine,  far  too  vacillating  a 
person  to  inspire  confidence  himself,  and  he  is  cer- 
tainly the  last  man  in  the  world  whom  I  should 
imagine  to  be  capable  of  leading  a  savage,  or  half- 
savage  race,  who  are  acutely  susceptible  to  the 
shghtest  suspicion  of  hesitancy,  and  who  invariably 
regard  it  as  the  sign  manual  of  weakness. 

Of  course,  I  speak  from  the  point  of  view  of  an 
amateur.     I  have  never  seen  the  Egyptian  officer 


36  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

lead  his  men  into  battle,  and  I  may  be  doing  him  a 
grave  injustice  ;  but  I  have  seen  him  attempting  to 
quiet  a  petty  squabble  among  men  who  were  under 
him,  and  the  sight  is  not  an  altogether  edifying  one. 
If  only  he  could  be  brought  to  appreciate  the  fact 
that  something  more  than  a  raised  voice  is  required 
in  order  to  instil  respect  into  the  minds  of  his  fol- 
lowers he  might  be  a  very  useful  man  indeed,  but 
from  the  many  opportunities  I  had  of  judging  during 
the  time  I  spent  in  the  Sudan,  it  always  seemed  to 
me  that  the  beginning  and  end  of  his  disciplinary 
powers  lay  in  the  hurling  of  loud-voiced  epithets  at. 
the  object  of  his  wrath,  and  when  this  method  failed 
to  produce  the  desired  effect,  he  would  let  the  thing 
slide,  thereby  nullifying  any  respect  which  his 
subordinates  might  have  felt  for  him  formerly. 

After  leaving  the  tomb  we  passed  through  the  big 
mosque  square  in  which  the  Dervish  army  paraded, 
and  which  had  been  built  presumably  as  a  refuge  in 
the  event  of  an  attack  on  the  city.  If  this,  indeed, 
had  been  the  intention,  it  failed  lamentably  in  its 
object,  as  there  was  not  a  single  loophole  by  which 
the  besieged  forces  could  attack  the  enemy,  though 
they  arrived  at  the  very  base  of  the  stronghold.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  was,  of  course,  never  used,  the 
great  fighting  force  of  the  Khahfa,  through  a  miracle 
of  bad  generalship,  having  been  poured  on  to  the 
British  guns  on  the  open  field  of  Kerreri.  In  con- 
sideration of  the  almost  certain  fact  that  they  were 
predestined  to  defeat  by  the  improved  and  modern 
weapons  of  war  which  were  in  our  possession,  and 


OMDUKMAN  AND  THE  MAHDFS  TOMB  37 

as  annihilation  alone  would  have  satisfied  their 
religious  fervour,  it  is  well  perhaps  that  they  should 
have  committed  this  fatal  error,  for  a  resistance 
from  out  the  warrens  of  Omdurman  would,  while 
perhaps  not  altering  the  final  result — Kitchener  was 
far  too  well  prepared  for  that — have  entailed  enor- 
mous loss  on  our  side  and  have  prolonged  the  ex- 
pedition considerably. 

Passing  through  the  square,  we  came  into  one  of 
the  main  streets  leading  to  the  Sukh,  and  it  struck 
me  then,  as  it  has  often  struck  me  since,  how  astonish- 
ingly soon  the  native  becomes  used  to  the  presence 
of  the  white  man.  A  white  man  strolling  about  the 
market  of  Omdurman  in  those  days  was  a  very  much 
more  unusual  sight  than  that  of  a  black  man  strolling 
about  the  streets  of  London  in  these,  yet  the  former 
sight  attracted  far  less  attention  in  Omdurman  than 
the  latter  does  in  London.  The  white  man  had  come 
to  stay,  and  let  him  turn  up  when  or  where  he  would, 
his  arrival  was  treated  as  a  matter  of  everyday  occur- 
rence. The  only  difference  which  one  noticed  was 
that  the  native  who  was  mounted,  on  donkey  or 
horseback,  it  mattered  not,  would  unostentatiously 
slide  off  at  the  approach  of  the  Englishman  and 
wait  until  he  had  passed  before  remounting.  That 
was,  of  course,  before  the  civil  Judge  had  come  to 
ask  the  contented  native  if  he  was  unhappy,  and  to 
intimate  gently  that  if  he  were  not  it  was  high  time 
that  he  developed  a  grievance ;  it  was  before  the 
time  when  the  native  would  jostle  the  European  in 
the  streets  and  at  the  railway  stations ;    it  was,  in 


38  FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

fact,  before  the  time  that  England  had  begun  her 
well-worn  methods  of  idiocy  in  treating  the  native 
as  a  spoilt  child. 

There  is  nothing  which  speaks  so  highly  for  the 
capabilities  of  the  individual  Englishman  to  colonise 
successfully,  as  the  manner  in  which  he  manages  to 
scrape  through  the  difficulties  which  are  constantly 
being  thrust  in  his  way  by  his  own  Government, 
which  appears  to  think  that  one  or  two  years'  train- 
ing under  the  British  flag  is  more  than  sufficient  to 
alter  the  whole  structure  of  a  savage's  character. 
The  change  of  poHcy  is,  of  course,  usually  worked 
by  some  ofiicial  who  has  stepped  into  a  position  of 
authority  after  everything  has  calmed  down.  It  is, 
perhaps,  small  blame  to  him  if  he  is  unable  to  appre- 
ciate the  conditions  which  formerly  obtained  among 
the  docile  and  well-behaved  people  for  whom  he  is 
called  upon  to  legislate.  The  blame  is  not  with  the 
individual  so  much  as  with  the  system  which  per- 
mits it.  But,  after  all,  we  blunder  through  it  some- 
how, and  at  least  there  is  seldom  any  hesitation  if 
we  are  called  upon  to  display  the  iron  hand.  The 
administration  of  the  Sudan  up  to  and  beyond  the 
time  of  my  arrival  had  been  entirely  military ;  the 
result  was  that  the  white  men  were  supreme — there 
was  no  doubt  about  it — though  I  defy  anyone  to  lay 
their  hand  upon  a  specific  case  of  cruelty  committed 
by  an  EngHshman  in  a  position  of  responsibihty. 
Change  has  crept  into  every  branch  of  the  Sudan 
since  those  days,  but  of  that  I  will  speak  later. 

At  that  time  the  native  was  respectful  and  un- 


OMDUKMAN  AND  THE  MAHDrS  TOMB  39 

spoilt ;  the  stall-holder  would  rise  with  a  courteous 
gesture  as  you  approached  his  stall,  and  though 
even  in  those  days  he  was  quite  capable  of  driving 
a  ruinous  bargain  with  the  unsuspecting  stranger,  he 
never  for  one  instant  forgot  the  line  which  divided 
the  black  from  the  white.  I  made  a  few  purchases 
in  the  bazaars,  and  regretted  doing  so  afterwards 
when  I  found  that  I  could  get  the  same  sort  of 
thing,  only  better  and  probably  more  genuine,  up 
country  for  an  eighth  of  the  price.  However,  ex- 
perience must  be  bought,  and  though  I  sometimes 
blush  to  think  what  a  veritable  babe  I  must  have 
seemed  to  the  vendor,  I  recover  myself  when  I  con- 
sider that,  year  by  year,  the  country  is  flooded  with 
innocents  as  great  as  myself.  The  one  thing  that  I 
thought  I  was  particularly  knowing  about  I  lost, 
and  have  regretted  it  ever  since.  It  was  a  tusk, 
very  small,  but  beautifully  carved,  from,  I  beHeve, 
the  Congo  Free  State.  The  owner,  after  much 
haggling,  came  down  to  a  sovereign  for  it,  but, 
thinking  I  would  be  able  to  get  it  on  my  return  for 
something  like  half  the  money,  I  left  it,  and,  of 
course,  by  that  time  the  thing  was  gone,  and  I  never 
saw  such  a  good  one  for  sale  again. 

I  finished  up  my  afternoon  at  the  big  cafe  owned 
by  a  Greek  named  Louiso,  where  I  drank  a  sweet 
drink  called  "  roman  "  with  great  relish ;  and  as  1 
looked  out  on  to  the  movement  and  colour  of  the 
square  in  front  of  me  it  seemed  as  though  the  yash- 
mak of  the  East  was  being  raised  before  my  eyes, 
and  I  was  glad  that  I  had  been  born. 


CHAPTER   III 

FEOM   KHARTOUM  TO    TAUFIKIER 

THE  next  morning  I  left  Omdurman.  My  orders 
then  were  to  proceed  with  stores  and  mails 
direct  to  Lado,  in  the  Congo  enclave,  returning  to 
Omdurman  in  about  a  month.  Accompanying  me 
for  the  first  part  of  the  journey  was  Sir  Rudolph 
von  Slatin  Pasha,  who,  after  the  many  vicissitudes 
of  his  life,  was  now  Inspector-General  in  the  country 
where  he  had  passed  so  many  weary  years  in  cap- 
tivity. "  Salitin ''  Pasha,  as  the  natives  call  him,  is 
a  short,  fair  man,  with  an  extraordinarily  youthful 
appearance  considering  all  that  he  has  passed  through. 
He  was  to  come  on  board  with  his  staff  at  Khartoum, 
but  the  principal  complement  of  men  and  stores 
were  embarked  at  the  south  gate  of  Omdurman 
(Bab  el  Khiblie).  It  was  there  that  I  first  saw  the 
one  side  of  the  native  character  which  I  hated  until 
the  day  I  left  the  Sudan  years  afterwards — the  noisy 
side.  It  is  as  impossible  to  describe  as  it  is  im- 
possible to  forget.  To  begin  with,  everyone,  of 
course,  talked  at  once,  and  talked  at  the  top  of  their 
voices  ;  the  men  shouted  to  the  women,  and  the 
women  yelled  in  reply.  I  was  to  take  up  a  party 
of  woodcutters,  who  were  to  be  dropped  at  a  wooding 

40 


C^^^^l^c^^        ^/^^ 


/§^z^ 


A 


y/o^ 


.SIR    liLUoLIMI    I;A1{0.\    VON   SLATIX    l'A.s|l.\,    k.c.m  ■;.,  c.v.o. 
liispi'Clor-Oeiiciiil  (jf  tlic  Siid.'Di 


1'.  4 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO   TAUFIKIER     41 

station  some  couple  of  hundred  miles  south ;  they 
were  going  up  there  to  stay,  with  their  wives  and 
their  children,  their  goats  and  their  poultry,  and  all 
their  household  belongings  to  boot.  I  did  not  object 
to  the  household  goods — they  were,  at  least,  silent 
when  once  they  had  been  placed  in  the  desired 
position  on  the  barges  alongside  the  steamer ;  of 
the  rest  I  don't  quite  know  which  were  the  worst, 
the  women  or  the  poultry.  They  were  so  inextricably 
mixed  that  it  was  impossible  to  say  which  really 
made  the  most  noise.  I  think  that,  individually 
perhaps,  the  honours  of  the  day  lay  with  the  former, 
for,  though  they  were  greatly  in  the  minority,  they 
succeeded  in  holding  their  own.  Every  woman  who 
appeared  was  carrying  as  many  screeching  chickens 
head  down  as  she  could  possibly  manipulate ;  the 
children,  and  their  name  was  legion,  carried  as  great 
a  number  as  they  could  manage  ;  the  result  was  a 
sort  of  devils'  concert  which  haunts  my  dreaming 
yet.  Above  this  deafening  racket  the  deep-voiced 
bellowing  of  the  men,  who  naturally  resented  being 
overpowered  in  this  manner,  rose  in  tones  of  trium- 
phant bass.  Every  two  minutes  one  of  my  sailors 
would  conduct  someone  up  to  speak  to  me,  regard- 
less of  the  fact  that  I  could  not  understand  a  word 
he  said.  Presumably,  and  judging  from  later  ex- 
periences, they  were  all  brimful  of  wrongs,  imagined 
or  otherwise,  and  came  to  me  for  redress ;  if  this 
was  the  case,  I  fear  that  they  got  but  scant  attention, 
for  after  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  of  it  all,  I  took 
to  my  heels  and  bolted  on  shore,  instructing  my  boy 


42  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

to  come  up  for  me  when  the  pandemoniuin  showed 
signs  of  abating. 

I  took  up  my  position  on  the  wall  of  an  old  fort 
a  couple  of  hundred  yards  away,  and  the  sounds 
which  reached  me  there  came  with  a  certain  amount 
of  softness  which  made  them,  at  least,  bearable. 
At  last  we  were  ready  ;  the  long-suffering  chickens 
were  duly  installed  in  the  cramped  space  which  was 
to  be  theirs  during  the  voyage,  the  women  were 
busy  preparing  the  midday  meal  for  their  husbands, 
and  the  children,  exhausted  with  their  recent  labours, 
huddled  up  in  the  bow  and  went  to  sleep.  But  the 
distance  from  Omdurman  to  Khartoum  is  very 
short,  and  no  sooner  had  we  got  fairly  under  way 
than  we  arrived  at  the  capital.  Here  the  noise 
started  once  more,  though  it  was  considerably  modi- 
fied now,  because  there  was  a  sufficiency  of  poultry 
ak'eady  on  board,  and  the  few  native  passengers  who 
embarked  here  did  so  without  bringing  any  five 
stock  with  them.  As  soon  as  we  put  into  the  shore 
one  of  the  giant  natives  of  the  Sirdar's  guard  made 
his  appearance  to  prepare  the  quarters  which  were 
to  be  occupied  by  Slatin  Pasha  ;  and  from  that  time 
there  was  a  constant  stream  of  baggage  wending  its 
way  down  from  the  palace,  until  at  last  the  Pasha 
himself  came  on  board  and  we  were  ready  to  start. 

We  got  under  way  at  about  one  o'clock  ;  the  heat 
was  tremendous,  and  I  was  thankful  when  the 
palms,  which  line  the  banks  at  Khartoum,  began  to 
shp  past  us  as  we  ghded  down  the  stream,  and  we 
were   fairly   started.      The   literal   meaning   of   the 


FROM   KHARTOUM    TO    TAUFIKIER     43 

word  Khartoum  is  "  elephant's  trunk  "  ;  the  curve 
which  the  land  takes  is  similar  to  that  of  an  ele- 
phant's trunk  upraised.  The  trunk  starts,  as  it 
were,  at  the  Palace,  and  narrows  to  almost  a  point 
where  the  White  Nile  meets  the  Blue.  At  the  meet- 
ing of  the  waters  we  turned  to  enter  the  White  Nile  ; 
Khartoum,  of  course,  faces  the  Blue.  It  is  curious 
that  the  waters  of  the  two  rivers  never  seem  to 
blend  ;  the  current  of  the  latter  river  is,  at  the  time 
of  flood,  much  stronger  than  that  of  the  former, 
and  by  its  force  in  passing  it  holds  up  the  water  of 
the  AVhite  Nile  ;  the  effect  is  that  of  dark,  turbulent 
water  rushing  past  a  still  lake  of  muddy  white,  and 
there  is  a  distinct  line  when  the  waters  actually 
meet.  It  is  not  until  it  gets  some  miles  north  of 
Omdurman  that  the  water  takes  the  colour  which 
it  bears  on  reaching  Egypt — the  colour  of  the  White 
and  Blue  Niles  blended. 

Most  of  the  gunboats  are  stern-wheelers,  excepting 
three,  which  were  originally  designed  for  the  gunboat 
service  of  the  British  Navy  in  the  rivers  of  the  far  East, 
but  which  were  handed  over  to  the  Sudan  when  it 
was  decided  that  they  would  be  necessary  to  the 
expedition.  I  went  up  on  deck  shortly  after  we 
had  started,  and  looked  down  into  the  splashing 
waters  in  our  wake.  The  day  was  mercilessly  hot, 
the  sun  threw  its  rays,  the  full  rays  of  the  tropics, 
down  on  to  the  sweltering  world  below,  the  desert 
caught  the  sun  and  threw  it  back  again  into  the  air, 
which,  laden  and  still,  could  do  naught  else  than  hold 
it.     The  top  deck  was  too  hot  to  walk  on,  unless 


44  FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

provided  with  thick  shoes,  but  down  below  an  eternal 
rainbow  shone  where  the  wheel  made  play  with  the 
cool  depth  of  the  waters,  and  I  envied  the  blades  of 
the  paddle  as  they  plunged  eagerly  into  the  river, 
rising  slowly  to  the  surface  a  moment  later,  dripping, 
glittering,  and  refreshed. 

As  the  last  house  of  Omdurman  disappeared 
in  our  wake,  a  tiny  cloud  appeared  in  the  west, 
and  an  hour  later  the  whole  sky  had  changed ; 
not  a  breath  of  wind  broke  the  stillness  of  the  air, 
which  yet  seemed  to  quiver  with  apprehension  of  a 
coming  storm.  Eventually  we  made  fast  to  the 
bank  with  anchors  and  mooring  stakes,  and  we 
were  not  a  moment  too  soon.  Hardly  had  the  last 
man  clambered  on  board,  after  tying  up,  when  the 
wind  came  sweeping,  tearing  across  the  desert  from 
the  west.  I  was  rather  surprised  that  it  did  not 
bring  rain  with  it,  as  the  clouds  were  black  as  ink, 
but  it  remained  perfectly  dry,  and  the  wind  itself 
did  not  last  for  more  than  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour, 
when  we  were  able  to  proceed  again  in  a  much 
brisker  atmosphere,  for  the  storm  had  the  effect  of 
stirring  the  air,  which  up  till  then  hung  like  a  blanket 
of  oppression  above  our  heads. 

For  the  first  hundred  miles  south  of  Omdurman 
the  country  is  not  particularly  interesting  ;  the  banks 
are,  for  the  most  part,  JElat,  and  the  place  is  far  more 
attractive  at  the  time  of  the  flood,  for  then  the  low 
ground  which  lies  between  Omdurman  and  Dueim  is 
one  large  lake.  Navigation  at  this  time  of  the  year  is 
extremely  difficult,  for  each  year  the  channel  alters 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     45 

slightly,  and  it  is  hard  to  avoid  running  ashore  on 
some  of  the  higher  of  the  submerged  lands  ;  at  low- 
Nile  there  is  only  one  channel  to  follow,  and  con- 
sequently, unless  the  water  is  very  low,  there  is 
less  chance  of  being  stranded.  The  gunboats  and 
steamers  are  of  extremely  shallow  draught,  and  built 
especially  for  this  class  of  work,  but  even  this  does 
not  prevent  them  getting  badly  stuck  occasionally. 
With  a  falling  Nile  it  is  a  serious  matter  to  run  ashore, 
as  a  sudden  and  sustained  fall  in  the  level  of  the 
water  would  leave  the  boat  high  and  dry  until  the 
next  flood,  or  otherwise  entail  the  immense  expense 
of  digging  a  channel  to  float  her  ort.  During  the  time 
I  was  in  the  Sudan,  I  believe  one  boat  had  actually 
to  be  dug  out,  at  a  point  near  Geteina,  between 
Khartoum  and  Dueim,  and  many  others  had  ex- 
ceedingly narrow  escapes.  The  Nile  between  Om- 
durman  and  Dueim  was  particularly  dangerous  in 
this  respect,  as  a  sudden  drop,  however  slight,  in  the 
Blue  Nile,  would  release  the  body  of  water  which 
was  being  held  up  on  the  White  Nile,  and  this  shallow 
expanse  would  be  the  first  to  drain  itself  off. 

The  only  village  of  any  importance  between  these 
two  places  is  the  village  of  Geteina,  which  I  have 
just  mentioned.  It  stands  back  some  distance  from 
the  river  on  the  right  bank,  and  is,  or  rather  was, 
chiefly  remarkable  for  the  cheapness  of  its  market. 
Everything  could  be  bought  here  at  about  a  third 
of  the  price  it  cost  in  Omdurman.  I  remember  the 
first  time  that  I  stopped  at  this  spot  I  sent  my  boy 
ashore  to  buy  some  chickens ;  he  returned  with  fine 


46  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

plump  fowls  at  a  piastre  the  pair.  Twopence-half- 
penny for  a  pair  of  prime  young  chickens  ! 

From  Geteina  onwards  it  became  a  common  thing 
to  see  a  crocodile  gliding  into  the  river  on  the  approach 
of  the  steamer,  but  the  more  remarkable  sight  is  the 
extraordinary  variety  of  bird  life  which  is  to  be  met 
with  at  about  this  point.  At  low  Nile  especially, 
the  banks  are  lined  with  thousands  and  thousands 
of  birds  of  all  sorts  and  descriptions,  from  the  smallest 
water-fowl  to  the  stately  marabout  stalk.  At  a  dis- 
tance these  latter  look  for  all  the  world  like  old 
gentlemen  in  evening  dress,  walking  along  with  their 
hands  under  their  coat-tails,  and  I  must  confess 
that  the  first  time  I  saw  them  I  quite  thought  for 
a  moment  that  they  were  human  beings.  They 
are  very  stately,  and  dignified  beyond  description. 
Although  I  shot  several  during  the  time  that  I  was 
in  the  Sudan,  I  was  invariably  unfortunate  as  regards 
the  quality  of  their  feathers,  and  I  never  got  a  really 
good  plume  at  all.  Before  I  left  the  country  the 
game  laws  had  very  rightly  limited  the  shooting  of 
these  birds  to  one  a  year,  for  in  the  old  days  people 
frequently  used  to  kill  them  whenever  they  got  the 
chance,  often  during  the  moulting  season,  when  there 
was  no  possibility  of  the  feathers  being  in  good 
condition. 

Both  duck  and  geese  are  very  numerous  about  this 
stretch  of  the  river,  the  former  are  often  quite  good 
eating,  although  the  latter  are  almost  invariably  too 
tough  to  be  worth  the  cooking.  But  of  all  the  birds, 
I  think  that  the  sacred  Ibis  are  the  most  beautiful,  the 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO   TAUFIKIER     47 

white  of  their  feathers  is  so  absohitely  pure,  and  their 
movements  attain  the  highest  perfection  of  feathered 
grace.  Hundreds  and  hundreds  flock  together,  and 
rise  in  a  cloud  of  snowy  white  as  a  boat  draws  close 
to  them,  although,  apparently  knowing  that  no  one 
but  the  rankest  outsider  would  shoot  into  their 
midst,  or,  indeed,  at  one  of  them,  except  for  the 
purposes  of  collecting,  they  are  perfectly  tame,  and 
they  would  allow  anyone  who  was  walking  to  get 
almost  close  enough  to  touch  them. 

It  is  the  paradise  of  the  feathered  world,  this  reach 
of  water  which  lies  so  close  to  Khartoum,  and  few 
boats  stop  there  as  a  rule,  so  it  is  likely  to  remain  more 
or  less  a  sanctuary  for  a  long  time  to  come.  The  only 
danger  which  besets  the  birds  lies  at  the  hands  of 
some  of  the  parties  which  now  throng  the  Sudan  in 
the  winter,  for  the  purposes  of  so-called  sport.  I  have 
seen  them  returning  to  Khartoum  after  their  trip  up 
the  river,  their  boats  laden  with  feathers  and  bird 
trophies,  the  majority  of  which  would  be  cast  into  the 
river  before  they  left  the  country.  They  shoot  in- 
discriminately, and  with  the  mere  desire  to  kill ; 
sport  as  sport  does  not  enter  into  their  calculations 
at  all,  and  when  an  unfortunate  fever  of  enterprise 
takes  them  up  into  the  lands  where  larger  game  is  to 
be  found,  they  do  more  to  thin  the  herds  of  antelope 
and  gazelle  than  all  the  resident  officials  of  the  country 
put  together.  They  shoot  and  possibly  wound  ;  then, 
never  taking  the  trouble  to  stalk  their  original  quarry, 
they  blaze  away  at  the  next  living  thing  that  presents 
itself  to  their  sight — provided  that  it  is  not  dangerous. 


48  FIVE    YEAKS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

Why  cannot  these  people  reahse  that  the  tenets  of 
sport  are  the  same  in  Africa  as  they  are  in  the  game 
coverts  in  England,  and  that  indiscriminate  volleys 
into  herds  of  game  is  as  intolerable  there  as  it  would 
be  in  a  deer-park  at  home.  Even  the  native  officer 
has  more  idea  of  sport  than  some  of  our  European 
guests,  for  at  least  the  Egyptian  shoots  for  food,  and 
will  let  those  birds  which  are  not  edible  pass  in  peace. 
Speaking  of  the  native  officers'  sporting  propen- 
sities reminds  me  of  one  man  in  the  Sudan  who  had, 
among  his  fellow-officers,  the  reputation  of  living  for 
sport,  and  for  sport  alone.  I  had  heard  of  him  long 
before  I  saw  him,  for  his  fame  was  great,  and  at  length 
I  came  across  him  at  Dueim.  As  soon  as  I  appeared 
in  the  village  I  was  greeted  with  the  information 
that  Somebody  Effendi — I  forget  his  name — had 
arrived  from  the  interior,  and  that  he  would  deem  it 
an  honour  if  I  would  accompany  him  on  a  shooting 
expedition  that  afternoon.  I  could  not  do  less  than 
accept  his  invitation,  and  punctually  at  four  he  called 
for  me,  his  boys  carrying  his  arms,  a  service  rifle, 
and  a  really  good  Army  and  Navy  Stores  hammerless 
gun,  a  weapon  which  I  ultimately  bought,  by  the  way. 
We  walked  for  about  a  thousand  yards,  certainly  not 
more,  and  then  we  came  to  a  full  stop  behind  a  wall. 
On  the  other  side  of  it  there  were  two  long  chairs 
set  in  the  shadow,  a  table,  and  a  liberal  supply  of 
cigarettes  and  drinks  of  all  descriptions.  At  his 
invitation  I  sat  down,  wondering  what  was  to  happen 
next,  and  when  we  were  to  start  on  our  expedition. 
Eventually,  after  about  half  an  hour,  spent  in  ab- 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO   TAUFIKIER     49 

sorbing  coffee  and  sweet  drinks  which  I  did  not  want, 
I  ventured  to  suggest  that  we  had  better  be  moving 
on,  but  my  suggestion  was  greeted  with  the  utmost 
surprise. 

"  Move  on  ?  Why,  we  are  already  there."  And 
then  I  learnt  the  cunning  of  Egyptian  sport.  After 
examining  his  weapons  with  the  utmost  care,  he  took 
the  shot-gun  under  his  arm,  and,  asking  me  to  follow 
him,  explained  the  situation.  About  twenty-five 
yards  from  our  "  battue  "  was  a  thin  line  of  corn, 
laid  carefully  along  the  ground  for  several  yards. 
He  looked  at  his  handiwork  with  evident  pride. 

"  This,"  he  said,  "  is  my  own  idea.  I  wait  behind 
the  wall  until  the  pigeons  come  down  to  feed  in  the 
evening,  and  by  patiently  waiting  until  there  are 
a  large  number,  I  can,  with  skill,  kill  as  many  as 
twenty-one  with  one  shot." 

We  went  back  to  our  weary  vigil,  but  either  the 
pigeons  had  become  wary,  or  we  did  not  wait  long 
enough,  for  never  a  bird  alighted  on  the  fatal  line  that 
night.  This  was  my  first  and  last  experience  of  sport 
as  it  is  understood  by  the  Egyptian.  I  never  dis- 
covered why  my  companion  was  armed  with  a  rifle 
in  addition  to  his  gun,  but  I  suppose  he  thought  it 
was  as  well  to  be  prepared  for  resistance  as  he  was 
contemplating  such  fearful  slaughter. 

The  little  town  of  Dueim,  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Nile,  is  important,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  junction  for 
the  interior  of  Kordofan  and  El  Obeid.  Kordofan 
is  rich  in  gum,  and  every  ounce  of  it  is  transported 
by  camel  to  Dueim,  whence  it  is  embarked  on  boats 


50  FIVE    YEARS   IN    THE   SUDAN 

for  Omdurman.  Dimng  the  gum  season  the  place 
presents  an  extraordinary  scene  of  animation.  There 
are  literally  lumdreds  of  boats,  of  all  sizes  and 
descriptions,  lined  up  against  the  banks,  waiting  for 
their  cargo  ;  and  on  shore  the  place  is  thronged  with 
an  ever  -  changing  crowd  of  camels  and  caravan 
attendants,  who  have  come  in  laden  with  the  produce 
of  the  interior,  and  are  resting  a  day  or  so  before 
essaying  the  return  journey  of  five  days  across  the 
desert.  It  is  not  generally  known  that  the  gum  in  its 
untreated  state  is  esculent,  but  such  is  the  case  ;  and 
in  some  parts  of  the  Sudan,  in  the  Blue  Nile  provinces 
especially,  it  is  quite  a  common  thing  for  the  natives 
to  carry  a  supply  with  them ;  they  are  as  fond  of  it 
as  the  Americans  are  reputed  to  be  of  their  chewing 
gum.  The  gum  season  is  always  a  very  anxious  period 
for  the  merchants,  as  should  the  cargo  get  wet  it  is 
spoilt  and  comparatively  useless  ;  and,  unfortunately, 
it  arrives  at  the  Nile  just  as  the  rains  are  beginning, 
so  that  the  utmost  care  has  to  be  taken  of  it  even 
while  on  shore.  Another  drawback  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  only  half-loads  can  be  put  on  board  the 
gyassas,  which  are  commonly  used  to  transport  it  to 
Omdurman,  as  a  laden  boat  would  naturally  be  more 
liable  to  ship  water  in  the  case  of  a  sudden  wind, 
when  the  whole  value  of  the  cargo  would  probably 
be  lost. 

There  is  a  small  sukh  at  Dueim  for  the  manufacture 
of  silver  goods,  such  as  bangles  and  ankle  rings  for 
the  women ;  but  the  work  is  neither  as  fine  or  as 
varied  as  that  in  Omdurman.     In  the  early  days  of 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     51 

the  Administration  there  was  nearly  always  a  British 
officer  stationed  at  this  town,  and  others  were  con- 
stantly passing  to  and  fro  from  Kordofan,  but  it  was 
not  the  seat  of  a  Mudir,  a  Mamour  or  magistrate — 
an  Egyptian—  being  the  representative  of  the  Govern- 
ment, subject,  of  course,  to  the  orders  of  the  British 
officer  when  one  was  on  the  station.  It  is  a  capital 
place  for  grouse  shooting ;  they  come  swooping 
down  to  the  river  in  the  early  morning,  and  I  got 
seventeen  couples  one  morning  in  about  half  an  hour, 
all  single  shots,  of  course ;  and  I  must  have  missed 
quite  half  as  many  as  I  hit. 

One  sees  the  first  signs  of  wooded  land  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Dueim.  The  first  wooding  station 
for  the  boats  was  situated  some  four  miles  to  the 
north  of  the  town  ;  the  steamers  relied  entirely  upon 
wood  as  fuel,  and,  consequently,  the  forests  showed 
rather  thin  and  bare  even  in  those  days.  This  was 
due  to  the  indiscriminate  hacking  down  and  lopping 
of  trees,  and  the  result  was  that  many  of  the  trees 
were  killed  outright,  whereas  had  a  proper  system 
been  instituted  from  the  beginning,  the  growth 
would  have  been  quite  fast  enough  to  keep  up  with 
the  demand  for  fuel.  A  little  to  the  south  the  forest 
fringes  the  river  even  when  it  is  low,  and  at  high  Nile 
the  trees  stand  out  in  the  water,  heavily  clothed  with 
green  of  every  shade,  and  make  a  picture  of  wonderful 
charm.  The  reach  between  Dueim  and  Goz  Abu 
Goma  was  always  my  favourite  bit  of  the  Nile,  that  is 
to  say,  in  as  far  as  the  picturesqueness  of  the  scene 
was  concerned,  though  it  was  neither  so  African,  nor  so 


62  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

grand,  as  many  of  the  stretches  which  lie  further  to 
the  south.  There  was  always  plenty  of  duck  about 
this  part  of  the  river,  and  at  the  wood  stations  there 
was  a  fair  variety  of  game,  sand  grouse,  the  long- 
legged  French  partridge,  and  also  a  few  guinea-fowl. 

Crocodiles  are  very  numerous,  and  one  occasionally 
saw  an  hippopotamus,  though  these  animals  visit  the 
northern  waters  in  smaller  numbers  every  year. 
Almost  the  first  time  that  I  stopped  at  one  of  the 
wood  stations  in  this  district,  one  of  the  sailors 
caught  a  baby  crocodile  by  the  tail  as  he  was  sleeping 
on  the  bank  of  the  river.  I  kept  him  in  a  tank  on 
board  for  some  weeks,  but  he  never  showed  any 
disposition  to  make  friends  with  me,  though  I  used 
to  feed  him  regularly  myself.  Eventually  he  died, 
and  was  duly  stuffed. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  small  monkeys  in  the 
forests  here,  too,  and  it  always  amused  me  to  watch 
them  going  down  to  drink  towards  nightfall ;  they 
proceeded  with  such  infinite  care,  and  if  the  head  of 
a  crocodile  appeared  above  the  water  within  fifty 
yards  of  where  they  were  drinking,  the  beach  was 
cleared  in  no  time.  Poor  little  beggars,  they  pay 
their  heavy  tribute  to  the  slimy  inhabitants  of  the 
river  year  by  year  I  suppose,  so  it  is  no  wonder  that 
they  are  afraid.  They  become  tame  very  quickly, 
and  are  nice,  clean  little  companions  as  a  rule.  I  kept 
one  once,  but  I  was  not  fortunate  in  my  choice,  and  I 
never  tried  another.  He  certainly  was  the  most 
destructive  little  animal  that  I  have  ever  seen,  and  his 
career  with  me  terminated  on  the  day  that  he  took 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO   TAUFIKIER     53 

it  into  his  head  to  visit  a  friend  of  mine  in  his  house 
at  Khartoum.  Finding  the  host  asleep  he  proceeded 
to  tear  his  mosquito  curtain  to  rags,  and  having 
accomplished  this  to  his  satisfaction  he  turned  his 
attention  to  the  drawing-room.  One  thing  struck  his 
fancy,  a  photograph  in  a  large  oak  and  silver  frame. 
It  was,  unfortunately,  the  only  photograph  which 
my  friend,  a  newly-engaged  man,  possessed  of  his 
fiancee.  It  was  also  unfortunate  that  at  the  moment 
when  Jock,  with  the  photo  held  out  at  arm's  length, 
was  admiring  its  beauty,  that  its  owner,  with  a  Sudan 
liver  and  clothed  in  his  pyjamas,  should  have  appeared 
at  the  door.  Left  to  himself  the  monkey  might  have 
replaced  the  photograph,  but  terrified,  as  I  can  well 
imagine,  by  the  vision  in  the  doorway,  he  bolted 
through  the  window  and  on  to  the  roof.  There  he 
broke  the  glass  in  the  frame.  That  was  intensely 
interesting,  so  he  threw  the  frame  down,  to  see  if 
anything  more  would  break.  It  did.  Capital !  Then 
he  made  the  pleasing  discovery  that  the  photo  itself 
would  tear.  He  was  caught  at  last,  and  I  gave  him 
away  to  my  boy  with  instructions  that  I  was  never 
to  see  him  again.  He  was,  I  afterwards  heard,  sold 
in  the  Sukh  to  a  native  woman  for  a  piastre,  and  he 
was  pretty  certain  of  a  good  home,  for  the  natives 
love  monkeys. 

But  to  return  to  the  forests  at  Dueim.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  wood  in  this  neighbourhood  is  sunt, 
and  makes  capital  fuel ;  it  is  almost  as  good  as  coal, 
and  is  very  much  more  economical  than  the  commoner 
woods  which  grow  at  most  of  the  other  stations.    A 


54  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

few  miles  further  up  the  river,  on  the  opposite  bank, 
there  is  a  pretty  little  village,  called  Kawa.  It  is 
very  small,  but  has  quite  a  good  market,  and  there  was 
an  Egyptian  police  officer  always  in  residence  there. 
This  village  is  quite  remarkable  for  the  beauty  of  its 
women ;  they  are,  of  course,  coloured,  and  range 
from  light  chocolate  to  jet  black,  but  many  of  them 
are  exceedingly  good-looking.  At  the  time  of  the 
Anglo-Egyptian  expedition  to  the  Sudan,  as  many 
of  the  best-looking  members  of  the  Khalifa's  harem 
as  he  could  spare  were  sent  south,  to  be  out  of  harm's 
way  in  the  event  of  possible  disaster  in  the  coming 
encounter  with  the  British.  As  the  inhabitants  of 
his  harem  were  legion,  they  were  too  many  to  return 
to  Omdurman  when  things  became  more  settled, 
after  the  arrival  of  the  EngHsh.  It  was  these  women 
and  their  progeny  whom  one  saw  about  these  villages, 
which  are  not  very  far  from  the  scene  of  their  former 
master's  final  defeat  and  death. 

I  do  not  know  why  it  should  have  been  so,  but 
Kawa  was  always  a  great  place  for  form  and  cere- 
mony. The  first  time  that  I  went  ashore  I  was 
preceded  by  an  ancient  sheik,  who  announced  my 
coming  in  stentorian  tones,  and  made  the  people 
rise  long  before  I  had  come  near  to  them.  There  is 
a  medium  in  all  things,  and  this  was  a  little  too  much 
of  a  good  thing.  I  saw  very  Little  that  day.  I  felt 
as  I  should  imagine  Royalty  must  feel  after  a  state 
visit  somewhere,  when  they  have  had  the  day  filled 
with  a  perpetual  applause  which  they  have  felt  bound 
to  reply  to. 


FROM   KHAETOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     55 

Kawa  is  famous  also  as  being  the  most  northern 
point  to  which  the  sudd  ever  arrives  ;  it  cannot,  for 
some  reason,  get  past  this  station.  Further  south 
huge  blocks  of  it  are  to  be  met  with  frequently,  but 
the  great  bulk  sinks  before  it  has  got  a  few  hundred 
miles  down  the  Nile,  and  I  do  not  think  it  has  ever 
been  seen  further  north  than  Kawa.  It  is  curious 
why  it  should  be  so,  and  I  know  of  no  reason  for  it, 
except  that  in  a  given  number  of  days  the  stufi  is 
bound  to  have  absorbed  sufficient  water  to  sink  it ; 
or  it  may  be,  though  I  do  not  think  that  this  is  the 
case,  that  there  is  an  under-current  at  this  point, 
which  draws  it  under,  and  from  which  it  lacks 
sufficient  buoyancy  to  extract  itself.  At  low  Nile  it  is 
impossible  to  get  near  the  place  in  a  steamer,  even  of 
such  shallow  draft  as  those  in  general  use  on  the 
river ;  the  same  thing  applies  to  the  next  place  of 
any  importance,  Goz  Abu  Goma. 

The  nearest  landing  stage  to  Goz  Abu  Goma  is 
nearly  half  an  hour's  walk  from  the  station,  at  the 
time  when  the  Nile  is  at  its  lowest,  for  it  is  built  on 
the  main  shore  side  of  a  khor,  the  inner  channel  of 
which  dries  up  almost  entirely  in  the  case  of  a  very 
low  river.  At  high  Nile  the  island  round  which  the 
khor  runs  almost  disappears  fi'om  sight,  but  when 
the  river  is  low  it  is  necessary  for  the  boats  to  stop  at 
the  other  side  of  it,  and  the  only  way  to  get  to  the 
town  is  to  walk  the  breadth  of  the  island,  and  cross 
the  dried  khor.  This  town  marked  the  end  of 
civilisation  at  the  time  when  I  arrived  in  the  Sudan. 
It  was  the  last  place  at  which  stores  or  meat  could  be 


56         FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

procured  for  money ;  it  was  the  last  place  where 
luxuries  in  the  way  of  sugar,  etc.,  could  be  procured 
at  all,  until  one  got  up  to  the  other  civilisation  of 
the  Congo  or  Uganda,  to  the  south  of  the  Sudan.  It 
was  then  at  the  end  of  the  telegraph  line,  and  weekly 
boats  from  Omdurman  went  no  further  south  with 
the  mails  ;  it  was,  so  to  speak,  the  frontier  station  of 
the  newly-civilised  Sudan.  Not  that  the  place  itself 
had  any  claim  to  being  called  civilised  ;  it  was  merely 
a  collection  of  mud  houses,  and  had  no  commerce 
or  trade  to  recommend  it  except  that  it  was,  at  that 
time,  the  cheapest  place  to  buy  ostrich  feathers  in 
the  country,  and  there  were  some  small  Greek  stores 
in  the  market,  where,  as  I  have  said,  it  was  possible 
to  buy  a  few  of  the  more  ordinary  articles  of  food- 
stuffs. 

It  was  the  end  of  the  desert,  the  beginning  of  the 
tropical  Sudan.  Sand,  which  had  been  growing  more 
scarce  each  hour  after  leaving  Dueim,  now  dis- 
appeared entirely,  and  waving  stretches  of  green 
lined  the  banks  on  either  side  of  the  river.  In  some 
places,  and  on  alternating  sides  of  the  water,  these 
swards  of  green  extended  nearly  half  a  mile  before 
meeting  the  forest.  They  were  simply  swamp,  and  it 
was  wellnigh  impossible  to  land  there,  but  that  did 
not  detract  from  their  refreshing  appearance,  es- 
pecially to  eyes  grown  painfully  accustomed  to  the 
glare  of  the  sun  striking  upon  sand  alone. 

Sixteen  miles  south  of  Goz  Abu  Goma  is  the  Ford 
of  Abu  Zeit,  the  one  spot  where,  at  the  time  of  an 
exceptionally   low    Nile,  the    river    is    unnavigable 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO   TAUFIKIER     57 

except  for  the  smallest  boats.  It  was  so  when  I 
arrived  in  the  Sudan,  it  is  so  to-day.  Why 
it  should  be  left  in  this  state,  an  endless  source 
of  trouble  and  expense,  it  is  impossible  for  me 
to  say.  The  Government,  so  go-ahead  and  far- 
seeing  in  most  things,  seem  to  have  shirked  the 
difficulties  of  this  one  question  in  a  most  inexcus- 
able manner.  They  have  sent  men,  competent,  prac- 
tical men,  up  to  survey  it ;  they  have  spent  weeks 
in  pegging  out  the  deepest  channel  with  pegs  that 
were  swept  away  by  the  first  rush  of  water  which 
came  with  a  rising  Nile ;  they  have  accumulated 
reports  on  the  subject  which  must  run  into  volumes  ; 
and  they  have  done — nothing.  The  first  thing  that 
I  heard  in  reference  to  this  ford  was  that  a  channel 
of  sufficient  breadth  to  allow  of  the  passage  of  at  least 
one  steamer  at  the  lowest  Nile  was  to  be  blasted  out ; 
the  last  thing  I  heard  about  it  was  that  the  job  ofiered 
difficulties  too  great  to  be  overcome.  And  this  from 
men  who  have  tamed  the  Sudan  to  bear  with  and 
foster  one  of  the  highest  civilisations  of  the  world, 
and  who  have  cut  a  way  for  their  steamers  through 
a  hundred  miles  of  swamp. 

I  suppose  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Govern- 
ment does  not  consider  that  the  outlay  would  be 
justified  by  the  result,  for  it  would  undoubtedly 
be  an  expensive  job.  The  bed  of  the  ford  is 
almost  entirely  composed  of  thick  layers  of  the 
shells  of  an  oyster-like  fish,  which  is  certainly  one  of 
the  hardest  substances  to  be  dealt  with  ;  gun-cotton 
has  not  the  slightest  effect  upon  it,  at  least  not  when 


58  FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

applied  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  there  is  hard  work 
before  the  man  who  undertakes  to  clear  a  channel 
here.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  weeks,  one  might 
almost  say  months,  lost  in  this  ford  year  after  year, 
by  the  heavily-laden  boats  proceeding  from  Om- 
durman  to  the  south.  They  run  ashore  and  stick  fast. 
The  only  way  in  which  they  can  be  brought  off  is  by 
removing  a  portion  of  the  cargo.  If  there  are  a 
number  of  small  boats  to  receive  the  displaced  cargo 
so  much  the  better,  if  not,  there  is  the  tedious  per- 
formance to  go  through  of  unloading  the  goods  from 
the  steamer,  putting  them  on  to  a  smaller  boat, 
which  takes  them  up  to  the  deeper  water  beyond 
the  ford  and  places  it  on  shore,  afterwards  returning 
for  more,  and  so  on  until  the  steamer  is  sufficiently 
light  to  proceed.  Then  the  stores  have  again  to  be 
carried  from  the  shore  to  the  steamer  before  she  is 
ready  to  start  on  her  journey  again. 

And  all  this  labour  is  for  a  couple  of  hundred  yards 
— it  is  scarcely  more — of  shallow  water.  Imagine 
the  state  of  the  Government  should  a  rising  suddenly 
take  place  south  of  this  ford  at  the  time  of  a  very 
low  Nile ;  the  fleet  would  be  snug  in  Khartoum — 
useless — or  at  least  practically  so.  In  a  country  like 
the  Sudan  one  never  knows  from  one  moment  to 
another  exactly  what  is  going  to  happen ;  a  Mahdi 
springs  up  in  an  unexpected  quarter,  and  the  only 
possibility  of  saving  the  situation  without  great 
expense  and  probable  loss  of  blood,  lies  in  the  ability 
to  deal  with  the  trouble  at  once,  before  the  revolu- 
tionary has  time  to  work  upon  the  susceptibilities 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     59 

of  the  natives  by  whom  he  is  surrounded.  Surely, 
therefore,  the  action  of  the  Government  in  postponing 
from  year  to  year  any  definite  scheme  for  removing 
the  one  barrier  which  exists  at  the  present  day  to 
prevent  navigation  between  Khartoum  and  Gondo- 
koro,  is  badly  advised,  and  short-sighted  in  the 
extreme.  Had  strenuous  measures  been  taken  at  the 
beginning,  and  money  devoted  to  the  deepening  of 
this  portion  of  the  river,  it  would  already  have  paid 
for  itself  in  the  time  that  it  would  have  saved.  For 
not  only  does  it  delay  the  boat  which  is  actually 
stranded,  it  delays  the  whole  system  of  transport 
in  the  south.  Boats  coming  down  from  the  Bahr-el 
Ghazal,  or  other  places,  to  meet  and  transfer  stores 
from  the  expected  steamer,  are  forced  to  wait  while 
these  are  being  transhipped  and  retranshipped  on 
the  Ford  of  Abu  Zeit ;  everything  is  disorganised. 
In  my  opinion  this  should  be  one  of  the  very  first 
works  to  be  undertaken  by  the  Government,  even  if 
a  special  credit  has  to  be  opened  to  accomplish  it. 

As  soon  as  the  ford  is  passed  the  mountains  of 
Gebelain  appear  in  sight.  The  name  Gebel  Ain  is 
literally  the  "  two  mountains  "  ;  they  are  supposed 
to  have  been  at  one  time  volcanic,  though  I  believe 
that  this  is  uncertain.  They  stand  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Nile,  two  hundred  and  twenty  odd  miles  south 
of  Khartoum,  and  can  be  seen  at  intervals  for  miles 
from  the  north  and  south.  The  place  used  at  one 
time  to  be  a  fairly  good  shooting  centre  I  am  told  ; 
but  I  never  saw  anything  there  myself  except  an 
occasional   gazelle,    or    the   more   common   kind   of 


60  FI\^   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

antelope.  The  mountains,  though  shrubby  at  the 
base,  are  quite  devoid  of  vegetation  further  up,  and 
stand,  great  bare  landmarks  of  dark  brown  red, 
the  only  mountains  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 

Renk  is  the  next  station  ;  it  is  also  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river,  and  I  do  not  know  why  it  exists 
at  all,  for  it  is  one  of  the  most  desolate  and  mosquito- 
ridden  swamps  north  of  Fashoda.  The  gunboats, 
in  proceeding  to  Fashoda  after  the  battle  of  Om- 
durman,  had  a  slight  engagement  here  with  one  of 
the  scattered  bands  of  dervishes  which  were  roaming 
about  the  country,  but  the  place  was  taken  without 
much  opposition,  and  the  only  thing  to  wonder  at 
is  why  they  ever  fought  for  it  at  all ! 

It  was  from  here  that  a  telegraph  clerk  sent  his 
now  famous  message.  The  story  is  old  enough,  and 
has  appeared  in  some  of  the  Egyptian  newspapers,  I 
beHeve,  but  it  is  worth  repeating.  It  was  in  the  days 
when  the  line  was  being  extended  slowly  to  the  south, 
and  the  telegraph  head  was  left  in  charge  of  an 
Egyptian  operator  while  the  Englishman  employed 
went  further  ahead  to  survey  the  best  route  to  follow. 
The  Hne  had  reached  Renk,  and,  according  to  custom, 
the  Egyptian  clerk  was  left  in  charge  to  take  mes- 
sages from  Khartoum. 

One  morning  the  Director-General  of  the  Tele- 
graph Administration,  who  was  then  at  Khartoum, 
received  an  "urgent"  telegram  from  the  sportsman 
in  charge  at  Renk.  "  Surrounded  by  wild  natives, 
elephants,  bears,  and  tigers  ;   please  relieve.'' 

Needless  to  say,  no  notice  was  taken  of  this  appeal. 


FROM   KHARTOUM    TO    TAUFIKIER     61 

and  that  night,  when  the  Director-General  was 
comfortably  asleep  in  his  long  chair  after  dinner,  he 
was  awakened  by  an  orderly  with  another  telegram, 
"  Refer  my  No.  .  .  .  Cancel  bears."  The  unfor- 
tunate man  had  evidently  been  talking  things  over 
with  some  of  the  "  wild  natives,"  and  had  been 
informed  that  bears  were  non-existent  in  Africa  ! 

The  place  has  certainly  been  greatly  improved  in 
later  days,  but  it  was  desolation  itself  at  the  time 
of  my  first  voyage  up  the  Nile.  A  little  further 
inland,  however,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  shooting 
to  be  got,  and  buffalo  are  sometimes  to  be  found 
within  a  few  miles  of  the  station.  I  met  a  shooting 
party  there  some  time  before  I  left  the  Sudan.  One 
of  the  members  had  that  morning  been  out  for  three 
hours,  and  had  not  had  a  shot.  On  his  way  home 
he  stood  to  watch  a  boy  driving  some  goats  from  the 
river  to  graze  ;  suddenly  a  lioness  sprang  from  some 
bushes  not  fifty  yards  from  where  he  was  standing, 
and  seized  one  of  the  goats.  He  was  a  capital  shot, 
and  landed  her  with  a  ball  through  the  heart.  She 
proved  to  be  an  exceptionally  fine  beast,  and  it  was 
more  than  lucky,  for  lions,  though  fairly  numerous, 
are  very  hard  to  get  at,  and  for  one  to  come  out  into 
the  open,  when  the  boy  was  driving  the  animals 
noisily  up  from  the  river,  was  an  almost  unpre- 
cedented occurrence.  Personally,  I  never  got  any- 
thing but  a  stray  gazelle  or  two  and  a  few  water-buck 
here,  but  I  never  went  very  far  afield  at  this  point. 

If  desolation  reigned  supreme  at  Renk,  what  must 
be  said  of  Fashoda,  the  swampy  abode  of  fever  that 


62  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

all   but  set  two  of  the  most  powerful  nations  of 
Europe  at  one  another's  throats  ?    I  had  been  longing 
to  see  it,  and  I  can  say  without  hesitation  that  it 
was   the   most   disappointing   place   in   the   Sudan. 
To  begin  with,  there  was  nothing  there,  that  is  to  say, 
nothing  but  swamp,  and  dampness  and  fever,  and 
a  few  mud  huts.    At  that  time  it  was  not  even  a  mili- 
tary station  of  the  Government ;    there  were  a  few 
military  police  under  the  command  of  a  melancholy- 
looking  Maaowen,  but  there  was  nothing  in  the  atmos- 
phere or  appearance  of  the  place  to  hint  that  it  had 
been  one  of  the  most  important  spots  in  recent  history. 
The  famous  fort  which  Major  Marchand  had  occupied 
during  his  stay  there  was  still  standing,  and  thither 
I  went  at  the  first  opportunity,  in  the  vain  hope  of 
seeing  something  which  would  convey  the  actuality 
of  the  past  to  my  bewildered  mind.    I  found  it  un- 
occupied except  by  a  few  swifts  which  had  built 
their  nests  under  the  mouldering  eaves  of  the  roof. 
And  yet  it  was  here  that  Marchand  had  stood  at 
the  head  of  his  handful  of  troops,  and  defied  the 
largely  superior  forces  of  Britain  and  Egypt.     It  was 
here,  that  under  the  shadow  of  the  Tricolour,  he  had 
watched  the  arrival  of  the  gunboats,  until  quite  a 
formidable  fleet  had  assembled  in  the  creek  command- 
ing his  residence.    It  was  here  that  he  had  seen  his 
dreams  fade  one  by  one.    It  was,  in  short,  here  that 
a  brave  man  had  stood  steadfastly  at  his  post,  ready 
to  face  certain  death  and  defeat  should  the  honour 
of  his  country  demand  it  of  him.    It  is  said  that  he 
wept  when  he  found  that  it  was  not  to  be ;   that  he 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     63 

was  to  go  in  peace,  but  with  the  knowledge  that  the 
Sudan  had  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  French 
Empire  for  ever.  He  had  done  his  work  nobly  and 
well,  and  it  may  well  be  that  at  the  time,  he  would 
have  preferred  to  be  called  upon  to  make  the  sacrifice 
of  his  life  and  following,  rather  than  leave  the  post 
he  had  struggled  so  hard  to  gain.  Since  those  days 
the  name  of  the  place  has  been  changed  from  Fashoda 
to  Kodok,  the  native  name.  The  reason  assigned 
at  the  time  of  the  change  was  that  it  was  done  in 
honour  of  France.  If  this  is  the  case,  which  I  am 
still  much  inclined  to  doubt,  I  think  that  it  is  one 
of  the  greatest  insults  which  one  nation  could  offer 
another ;  the  French  are  not  a  nation  of  children ; 
it  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  change  the  name 
of  Trafalgar  Square  or  of  Waterloo  Place  ;  the  thing 
is  inconsistent  in  every  way. 

Fashoda  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  to  anyone, 
except  for  a  few  months  in  the  flood,  when  there  is 
good  duck-shooting  in  the  neighbouring  creeks.  To 
the  back  of  the  village  there  is  a  fairly  level  stretch 
of  ground  running  away  to  the  forest  beyond,  but 
it  is  swampy  for  a  great  part  of  the  year,  and  unin- 
teresting always.  There  is  no  shooting  to  be  got  in 
the  district,  with  the  exception  of  the  duck  which 
I  have  just  mentioned,  and  altogether,  it  is,  or  rather 
was,  one  of  the  most  uninteresting  places  that  one 
could  meet  with,  though  I  think  that  perhaps  Renk 
beat  it  for  absolute  desolation. 

In  later  days  it  became  the  seat  of  the  Mudir,  or 
Governor  of  the  Upper  Nile  province,  and  much  has 


64  FIVE   YEAKS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

been  done  to  make  the  place  more  healthy  and  livable. 
Lieut.-Colonel  Matthews  of  the  Royal  Marines,  to 
whom  the  task  of  reclaiming  this  province  has  been  to 
the  greatest  extent  entrusted,  has  worked  indefatig- 
ably  ever  since  he  arrived  in  the  district,  with  the 
result  that  he  has  succeeded  in  reducing  the  yearly 
number  of  fever  cases  to  an  extraordinary  extent, 
and  that  far  from  being  the  fever-ridden  swamp  of 
former  days,  it  is  now  a  comparatively  healthy  station. 

The  tribe  which  inhabits  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  place  are  Shilluks,  a  fine  upstanding  race,  but 
hopelessly  imbued  with  the  idea  that  it  is  a  degrada- 
tion for  a  man  to  work  at  anything  except  the  pursuit 
of  game,  if  such  a  delightful  exercise  can  be  called 
labour.  The  boys  are  ready  and  willing  to  work, 
and  they  are  by  no  means  lazy,  but  once  they  arrive 
at  the  age  of  puberty  they  return  to  their  villages, 
and  pass  the  rest  of  their  lives  in  hunting  and  idling. 
It  is  almost  impossible  for  anyone  who  has  not  had 
to  combat  the  deadly  effects  of  this  conservatism, 
to  realise  how  deep-rooted  and  inseparable  it  is  from 
the  native. 

A  few  miles  to  the  south  of  Fashoda  the  first 
missionary  station  has  been  formed,  under  the  super- 
vision of  an  Austrian  order  of  Catholics.  I  asked 
a  priest  one  day  as  to  the  chances  of  gathering  con- 
verts to  Christianity  from  among  the  natives  of  the 
district,  who  are  at  present  heathens  pure  and  simple. 
His  reply  spoke  volumes  as  to  the  difficulty  to  be 
overcome.  "  If  we  continue  our  work  as  we  are  doing 
at  present,"  he  repHed,  "  we  may,  in  another  hundred 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     65 

years,  begin  to  think  of  teaching  religion.  At  present 
we  devote  ourselves  entirely  to  the  training  of  the 
younger  natives  to  agricultural  labour,  and  they  take 

to  it  readily  enough.      But  their  parents "  he 

shrugged  his  shoulders  impressively.  "  Only  the 
other  day  we  were  gathering  our  crop  of  tomatoes, 
which  has  been  unusually  plentiful  this  season.  The 
event  had  attracted  a  large  number  of  the  adult, 
as  well  as  of  the  more  youthful  population,  from  the 
neighbouring  villages.  They  tasted  the  fruit  and 
were  delighted  with  it,  and  fought  greedily  for  a 
sackful  which  we  gave  to  be  distributed  among  those 
who  were  present.  Later,  when  the  period  for  planting 
arrived,  we  sent  a  sack  of  seeds  to  the  head  of  the 
village,  thinking  that  they  would  be  delighted  at  the 
chance  of  growing  the  fruit  for  themselves.  No  such 
thing  ;  the  sack  was  returned  without  thanks.  Their 
grandfathers  had  not  planted  tomatoes,  their  fathers 
had  not  done  so,  then  why  should  they  ?  " 

It  is  disheartening  work,  this  trying  to  instil  enter- 
prise into  the  savage  mind.  They  consider  labour  of 
any  kind  derogatory  when  once  they  have  reached 
the  age  of  manhood,  and  they  would  rather  starve 
than  work.  It  is  the  case  in  this  district ;  it  is  even 
more  pronounced  further  south. 

I  recollect  once,  towards  the  end  of  my  time  in 
the  Sudan,  there  had  been  a  famine  raging  in  the 
district  which  lies  on  the  borders  of  the  Belgian 
Congo.  I  was  on  a  boat  which  was  taking  grain  to 
the  Government  stores  at  Mongalla,  the  last  station 
to   the   south   of    the    Sudan.     There    was  also   a 


66  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

cargo  of  cattle  in  tow,  and  it  was  consequently 
necessary  to  stop  once  a  day  to  cut  grass  for  their 
feed.  The  rainy  season  had  set  in,  and  the  banks 
of  the  river  were  lined  with  rich,  verdant  grass,  almost 
as  high  as  one's  head.  At  one  of  the  places  where  we 
stopped  there  was  a  village  a  few  hundred  yards  back 
from  the  river,  and  the  inhabitants  came  out  in  force 
to  watch  the  proceedings.  There  must  have  been 
quite  fifty  or  sixty  men  at  least,  seated  on  the  bank, 
and  a  wretched  sight  they  were,  thin  to  emaciation, 
and  with  the  dull  eyes  that  tell  the  tale  of  constant 
hunger.  At  last  the  chief  arrived,  and  begged  for 
grain.  He  was  told  that  if  his  men  cut  the  grass  for 
fodder  he  would  be  supplied  with  it.  He  looked 
doubtful,  but  went  ashore  to  confer  with  his  tribe. 
One  by  one  they  rose  from  their  seats,  and  slunk  away 
to  their  miserable  huts,  hungry  and  weak.  They 
would  not  cut  the  grass,  though  it  would  hardly 
have  necessitated  their  rising  from  their  seats  to  do  it. 
They  preferred  the  hunger  which  was  gnawing  at 
their  vitals  rather  than  the  slight  expenditure  of 
labour  the  act  would  have  entailed.  They  can,  of 
course,  be  driven  to  work,  and  they  work  wonderfully 
well  too,  for  men  who  have  been  hitherto  absolute 
strangers  to  it;  but  the  driving  days  are  over  now, 
and  if  any  good  is  to  be  done,  it  must  be  by  constant 
urging  of  the  advantages  which  are  to  be  gained  by 
labour. 

Colonel  Matthews  has  already  worked  wonders 
in  the  Fashoda  district  in  this  manner.  Those  who 
work  at  the  various  jobs  which  the  Government  has 


FROM   KHARTOUM    TO    TAUFIKIER     67 

to  offer  are  paid  in  the  coin  of  the  realm,  and  they 
can  share  the  delights  of  the  moneyed  men ;  in  conse- 
quence, those  who  will  not  work  must  be  content  to 
sit  on  the  bank  and  watch,  and  though  it  may  be 
a  pleasant  occupation  enough  while  your  neighbour 
is  hard  at  it,  it  is  entirely  the  reverse  when  he  dons 
the  brilHant  clothing  purchased  with  the  money 
he  has  earned,  and  returns,  the  idol  of  the  ladies, 
to  his  native  village. 

The  women  here,  as  in  all  parts  of  the  Sudan,  play 
an  important  part  in  the  daily  lives  of  the  inhabitants  ; 
they  take  an  active  and  prominent  part  in  all  social 
functions,  and  are  never  excluded  from  intercourse 
with  men  other  than  their  husbands,  as  are  the  women 
of  Egypt.  They  are  not  handsome,  but  they  are 
faithful,  at  least,  they  were  until  the  contaminating 
influences  of  a  standard  of  morality  infinitely  lower 
than  their  own  followed  in  the  wake  of  civilisation. 
But  they  still  retain  to  a  great  extent  their  old  ideas 
of  right  and  wrong,  except  in  some  of  the  villages 
which  border  the  larger  towns,  where  troops  and 
their  harems  are  situated. 

I  have  already  alluded  to  the  harm  done  by 
some  of  the  Greek  traders  by  the  importation  of 
cheap,  rank  spirits  into  the  country,  and  it  is 
at  Fashoda,  and  in  the  Fashoda  district,  that  the 
effects  are  most  noticeable.  The  former  Mek,  or 
King,  of  the  district  was  addicted  to  strong 
drink,  and  it  seems  that  his  example  was  freely 
followed  by  his  subjects.  I  saw  him  once,  when  on 
my  first  trip  he  came  on  board  to  pay  his  respects  to 


68  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

Slatin  Pasha,  and  his  appearance  was  most  impressive. 
He  wore  a  long  cloak  of  black  cloth,  which  exactly- 
matched  his  complexion,  his  forearms  were  hidden 
by  innumerable  bracelets  of  polished  brass,  and  his 
feet  were  encased  in  the  red  leather  shoes  of  the 
country.  A  head-dress  of  white  linen,  used  as  a 
turban,  and  a  huge  naval  sword  completed  his  outfit. 
He  was  a  cheery  old  soul,  and  his  followers  paid  him 
the  greatest  deference. 

I  was  not  on  board  to  witness  his  arrival,  but  his 
departure  was  attended  with  the  greatest  state.  When 
he  had  got  safely  off  the  ship — incidentally  he  nearly 
fell  into  the  water,  as  a  result  of  the  engines  being 
worked  by  mistake,  an  accident  for  which  I  was  re- 
sponsible, and  which  I  tried  to  regret — he  mounted 
a  donkey,  salaamed  to  the  Pasha,  and  went  off  at  a 
sharp  jog-trot.  His  chief  attendant  ran  at  his  side, 
and  vainly  attempted  to  keep  an  enormous  umbrella 
over  the  august  head.  The  rest  of  his  court  ran 
behind  in  a  straggling  train,  carrying  spears,  and 
wearing  nothing  but  mud  head-dresses. 

It  is  said  that  a  chaplain  went  south  from  Khar- 
toum in  the  early  days,  and  that  on  his  arrival  at 
Fashoda  he  stepped  ashore,  full  of  zeal  to  see  what 
could  be  done  in  the  way  of  missionary  work  in  the 
short  time  at  his  disposal.  Further  north,  where 
the  religion  of  Islam  holds  the  people,  the  Government 
is  very  strict  in  the  prohibition  of  proselytising  in 
any  way,  but  at  Fashoda,  where  the  natives  are  simple 
heathens,  missionaries  may  act  as  they  please.  The 
King  was  introduced  to  our  friend  as  one  of  the  most 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     69 

promising  subjects  by  the  British  officer  in  command 
of  the  station,  but,  unfortunately,  the  same  boat 
which  had  carried  the  clergyman  south  must  have 
also  carried  ilhcit  spirits  as  part  of  its  cargo,  for,  to 
say  the  least,  the  King  was  happy !  It  may  be  that 
his  extraordinary  spirits  were  put  down  by  the 
clergyman  to  the  natural  temperament  of  a  people 
whom  he  had  never  encountered  before ;  it  may  be 
that  he  was  blinded  by  his  enthusiasm  ;  in  any  case, 
he  was  by  no  means  daunted.  After  greetings  had 
been  exchanged,  he  put  a  question  to  his  Majesty, 
through  his  interpreter.  "  What  is  the  religion  of 
your  country  ?  " 

The  King  looked  somewhat  taken  aback  for  the 
moment ;  then  he  laughed  good-humouredly.  "  Tell 
the  khaivaga  (gentleman),''  he  said,  "  that  our  re- 
ligion is  the  same  as  that  of  the  English ;  we  have 
none,  and  we  drink  whisky." 

The  reply  was  false  as  the  old  rascal  himself ;  the 
tribe  is  by  no  means  without  a  religion  ;  they  worship 
the  spirit  of  a  departed  King,  who  is  reputed  to  have 
lived  some  four  hundred  years  ago,  and  whose  spirit 
dwells  in  the  winds  which  sweep  the  country  in  the 
summer  months.  It  always  strikes  me  that  there  is 
something  most  attractive  about  this  worship  ;  it 
seems  as  though  there  may  well  be  the  spirit  of 
a  watchful  deity  in  the  winds  that  fling  their  courses 
over  the  land  at  times,  and  which  claim  obeisance 
from  the  trees  and  stately  grasses,  as  well  as  from 
the  waters  of  the  Nile  itself.  Africa  is  grand  in  its 
wild,  lone  places  at  ordinary  times,  but  most  of  all 


70  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

is  its  grandeur  compelling  and  real  when  the  storm 
spirit  wakes  in  its  fury,  and  shakes  in  its  passing  the 
foundations  of  the  earth. 

Far  more  noble  does  this  religion  of  the  Shilluk 
seem  to  me  than  that  of  the  Dinkas  on  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  river,  who  worship  their  forefathers.  The 
religion  of  neither  of  these  tribes  is  particularly 
binding ;  they  are,  indeed,  little  more  than  a  tra- 
dition, except  in  occasions  of  stress,  and  then  it  is 
the  case  of  "  when  the  Devil  is  sick,''  etc.,  over  again. 
The  men  in  these  districts  are  very  tall,  but  they  are 
so  thin  that  they  seem  to  have  no  flesh  on  their 
bodies  at  all ;  they  are,  however,  strong  and  wiry, 
and  only  need  regular  food  and  proper  training  to 
develop  into  a  magnificent  race.  Their  language 
is  not  remarkable  for  the  number  of  words  employed  ; 
conversation  is  chiefly  carried  on  with  a  "  klk  "  in 
variations ;  they  are  not  a  loquacious  race,  and  will 
sit  in  crowds  for  hours,  never  opening  their  lips,  or, 
to  judge  from  their  expressions,  thinking  very  deeply 
either. 

"  Where  ignorance  is  bliss  'tis  folly  to  be  wise," 
and  I  suppose  these  people  get  their  maximum  en- 
joyment out  of  life,  but  it  is  hard  for  a  Westerner  to 
understand  where  the  enjoyment  comes  in,  except 
when  they  are  on  their  sporting  tours.  This  is 
perhaps  all-sufficing  for  the  men,  but  what  of  the 
women,  hanging  about  the  precincts  of  the  tiny  huts 
they  inhabit,  day  in  and  day  out  ?  Certainly  they 
have  no  rates  and  taxes  to  bother  them  ;  no  pressing 
questions  of  new  hats  or  dresses  to  cause  them  a 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     71 

moment's  anxiety ;  and  it  may  be  that  they  are 
content  with  their  life,  having  known  no  better. 

A  httle  to  the  south  of  Fashoda  is  situated  the 
mission  station  to  which  I  have  already  alluded. 
Why  this  particular  spot  was  chosen  I  was  never  able 
to  discover,  for  it  is  on  the  borders  of  a  pestilent 
swamp,  and  mosquitoes  and  flies  of  every  description 
infest  it  in  milhons.  But  here  it  is,  and  here,  pre- 
sumably, it  will  remain,  for  it  has  been  established 
some  years  now,  and  the  Fathers  would  be  loath  to 
leave  it,  swamp  and  fever-ridden  though  it  be. 
I  never  met  a  priest  in  the  Sudan  who  did  not  prefer 
to  be  isolated  in  this  spot  than  stationed  in  the 
comparative  luxury  of  Omdurman  or  Khartoum. 
They  work  hard,  and,  what  is  more,  they  devote  their 
energies  in  the  right  direction.  For  the  present,  as 
I  have  said,  they  give  their  time  to  the  training  of 
the  people  to  agricultural  and  other  pursuits,  and 
leave  the  actual  teaching  of  religion  to  a  future 
generation ;  in  this  manner  they  are  assisting  the 
Government  in  the  task  of  civilising  the  country, 
and  at  the  same  time  preparing  the  people  for 
Christianity  in  the  best  possible  manner. 

Before  I  leave  the  subject  of  Fashoda  I  will  men- 
tion a  fact  which  I  believe  few  people  are  aware  of, 
certainly  very  few  were  aware  of  it  at  the  time  it 
occurred.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  feeling 
between  France  and  England  ran  rather  high  over 
the  Fashoda  incident,  and  thousands  of  loyal  French- 
men assembled  at  the  Gare  de  Lyons  to  meet  Major 
Marchand,  who  was  the  idol  of  the  moment,  on  his 


72  FIVE   YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

return  to  Paris.  He  was  conducted  from  the  station 
in  great  style,  and  his  carriage  passed  through  the 
lines  of  a  cheering  multitude.  Two  Britishers  who 
had  arrived  by  the  same  train  from  the  south  entered 
a  hired  carriage  and  drove  away  unnoticed  into  the 
town.  What  would  the  waiting  crowds  have  had  to 
say  had  they  known  that  these  two  men  were  General 
Kitchener  and  his  A.D.C.,  Major,  now  Colonel, 
Watson  ?  The  event  of  their  arrival  by  the  same 
train  had  been  quite  unintentional,  but  it  must  be 
admitted  that  it  would  have  looked  suspiciously  like 
a  personal  affront  to  the  French  nation  had  the 
occurrence  been  known  at  the  time. 

Between  the  towns  of  Fashoda  and  Taufikier 
the  land  is  flat  and  entirely  uninteresting ;  there  is 
nothing  to  see  except  the  native  villages  which  border 
the  river  here  and  there,  and  the  only  thing  bigger 
than  a  bird  that  I  ever  saw  on  this  reach  worth  shoot- 
ing was  a  huge  snake.  One  of  the  crew  spotted  it 
from  the  bridge,  so  we  drew  into  the  bank  a  few 
hundred  yards  off,  and  I  landed  to  try  and  get  a  shot 
at  him.  The  men  on  the  boat  waved  me  on  to  where 
about  it  had  been  seen,  and  I  advanced  with  extreme 
caution.  I  do  not  like  snakes.  Eventually  I  got 
a  glimpse  of  his  shining  back,  and  kneeling  to  take 
better  aim,  I  fired.  I  could  not  be  certain  whether 
I  had  hit  or  not ;  there  was  no  movement,  so  I  fired 
again.  Still  no  movement ;  I  must  have  killed  him 
stone  dead  the  first  shot !  I  advanced,  stealthily  still ; 
one  never  quite  knows  what  a  snake  will  do  ;  but  at 
length  my  nostrils,  sharper  than  my  eyes,  told  me 


FROM   KHARTOUM   TO    TAUFIKIER     73 

the  reason  of  its  lack  of  movement.  I  returned  to 
the  boat  without  advancing  further — it  was  not 
necessary. 

The  approach  to  Taufikier  itself  is  very  pretty ; 
the  banks  are  lined  with  doleb  palms,  and,  even  on 
the  hottest  day,  there  is  always  an  effect  of  coolness 
in  the  great  fat  shadows  which  lie  beneath  them.  It 
is  a  nice  clean  little  town,  and  at  the  time  of  my 
arrival  it  was  the  head-quarters  of  the  Governor  of  the 
Upper  Nile  Province.  It  is  the  last  station  which 
Lies  to  the  north  of  the  desolate  regions  of  sudd, 
which  have  cost  the  Government  such  thousands  of 
pounds  to  clear.  Taufikier  was  then  only  of  im- 
portance as  the  junction  for  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  the 
Bahr-el-Gebel,  the  Sobat,  and  the  Bahr-el-Zaraf. 


CHAPTER   IV 

A  VOYAGE   OF   DISCOVERY 

UPON  our  arrival  at  Taufikier,  Slatin  Pasha 
definitely  decided  to  proceed  up  the  river 
Sobat  to  try  and  find  traces  of  two  Englishmen  who 
had  left  Khartoum  some  time  before  for  these  regions, 
and  had  never  been  heard  of  since  passing  Taufikier. 
Comparatively  few  boats  had  at  that  time  been  up 
the  river,  and  I  was  very  glad  to  get  the  opportunity 
of  making  the  journey  ;  indeed,  it  was  very  lucky 
that  I  did  so,  for  in  all  the  time  that  I  was  in  the 
Sudan  I  never  got  far  from  its  mouth  again. 

I  had  some  difficulty  in  procuring  fresh  meat  to 
start  with,  as,  much  to  my  dismay,  I  found  that  in 
spite  of  a  good  supply  of  gold  and  silver  of  the  realm, 
I  might  just  as  well  have  been  without  money  at  all, 
for  the  inhabitants  of  Taufikier  would  have  none  of  it. 
A  foot  of  brass  wire  would  have  procured  me  food  suf- 
ficient to  last  me  for  a  month,  but  money  was  useless. 
Eventually  my  boy  managed  to  buy  some  brass  from 
a  Greek,  at  an  exorbitant  rate,  and  I  got  a  few 
chickens  to  start  the  journey  with ;  these  proved  to 
be  more  than  ample,  as  there  was  any  amount  of 
game  to  be  got  whenever  we  stopped,  guinea-fowl 
and  pigeon  principally,  but  enough  to  keep  the  table 
plentifully  supplied. 

74 


A   VOYAGE    OF   DISCOVERY  75 

My  recollections  of  the  Sobat  are,  unfortunately, 
somewhat  vague ;  everything  was  new  and  im- 
pressive, and  I  have  got  events  and  places  rather 
mixed  up  in  my  mind  ;  the  sheets  of  my  diary  which 
were  written  during  that  first  trip  have,  unfortunately, 
been  lost.  I  recollect,  however,  that  two  of  the  things 
which  impressed  me  most  at  the  time  was  the  extra- 
ordinary greenness  of  the  vegetation,  and  the  won- 
derful clouds  of  fireflies  which  lined  the  banks  of  the 
river  at  night.  There  were  millions  of  them — and  the 
effect  was  very  beautiful  as  they  moved,  a  constant 
scintillating  wave  of  glittering  light  about  the  banks. 
They  are  supposed  to  devour  the  mosquitoes,  and 
these  latter  had,  I  sincerely  trust,  as  bad  a  time  as 
they  gave  me.  At  least  there  is  no  danger  of  my 
forgetting  the  mosquitoes  of  the  River  Sobat.  I  had 
never  seen  anything  like  them  before,  and  indeed, 
there  were  only  two  spots  in  the  Sudan  that  I  came 
across  which  were  as  bad  as  this.  They  started  with 
the  setting  of  the  sun,  and  continued  their  attentions 
without  a  break  until  dawn ;  then  they  departed, 
happy  in  the  knowledge  that  it  would  be  too  hot  for 
one  to  sleep.  I  had  the  mosquito  curtain  put  up 
under  my  own  supervision  ;  I  examined  every  inch 
of  it  to  see  that  there  was  no  hole  by  which  a  mos- 
quito could  enter ;  I  had  two  boys  to  flick  them 
away  with  towels  as  I  slunk  into  bed,  and  just  when 
I  was  falling  asleep  they  would  begin  to  find  their 
way  in,  in  twos  and  threes,  humming  with  delight 
as  they  settled  on  the  end  of  my  nose,  or  on  the  tip 
of  my  ears.    It  was  no  good  ;   I  simply  had  to  sleep, 


76  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

and  at  length  I  trained  myself  to  do  so,  native-like, 
with  my  head  under  a  sheet ;  this  was  the  only 
manner  in  which  rest  was  possible. 

The  country  was  most  interesting,  and  the  tribes 
which  one  saw  were  absolutely  different  to  those  on 
the  other  rivers ;  some  of  them  had  almost  intel- 
lectual faces ;  all  of  them  were  splendid  specimens 
of  humanity.  They  were,  however,  very  shy,  and  it 
was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  they  could  be 
persuaded  to  approach  the  boat.  At  several  villages 
we  stopped,  and  seeing  no  sign  of  life,  sent  men  up 
to  see  what  had  become  of  the  inhabitants.  They 
fomid  fires  lit  and  w^ater  boiling,  all  the  details  of  daily 
life  in  full  swing,  but  never  a  human  being  in  the 
whole  village.  If  we  waited  long  enough,  they  would, 
perhaps,  gain  sufficient  courage  to  venture  forth 
from  behind  the  ant-hills  where  they  had  been  hiding, 
and  would  eventually  approach  the  boat;  but  they 
were  in  evident  terror,  and  it  is  smaU  wonder  that 
they  should  have  been,  since  the  only  white  men 
they  had  known  before  were  those  who  had  come  at 
the  head  of  armed  forces  to  carry  away  their  women 
and  children  to  be  slaves  in  the  distant  north. 

They  were  for  the  most  part  great  dandies ;  the 
men  had  wonderful  coiffures  of  mud  and  feathers,  some 
of  them  must  have  been  of  a  tremendous  weight,  and 
I  don't  know  yet  how  they  ever  managed  to  sleep.  It 
is  related  that  an  Englishman,  boasting  to  a  Scotch- 
man of  the  cleverness  of  some  of  the  phrases  in  the 
EngHsh  language,  quoted  the  one,  "  Uneasy  lies  the 
head  that  wears  a  crown."     "  It's  all  right,"  said 


A   VOYAGE    OF   DISCOVERY  77 

the  Scotchman,  "  for  fools ;  a  Scotchman  would 
never  dream  of  attempting  it !  "  But  these  people 
keep  their  head-dresses  on  night  and  day,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  they  are  plastered  into,  and  mixed 
with,  the  hair,  and  they  are  impossible  to  remove — at 
any  rate,  they  would  need  months  of  soaking  first. 
The  richer  of  the  people,  who  own  herds  of  cattle, 
wear  horns  of  wood  fashioned  to  resemble  those  of 
their  finest  bull,  and  the  majority  of  the  men  also 
wear  heavy  armlets  of  ivory  above  the  elbow.  No 
clothing  at  all  is  worn  by  the  men  or  by  the  single 
women ;  they  occasionally  wear  girdles  of  beads 
made  from  the  shells  of  ostrich  eggs,  but  that  is  as 
far  as  they  go  in  the  way  of  dress.  They  are  by  far 
and  away  the  most  moral  tribe  in  the  Sudan  ;  indeed, 
infidelity,  or  a  moral  lapse  before  marriage  is  prac- 
tically unknown ;  should  such  a  thing  occur,  death 
is  immediately  meted  out  to  both  parties. 

Before  leaving  Omdurman  I  had  purchased  a  few 
cheap  mirrors,  as  I  had  been  told  that  they  were 
useful  in  some  districts  for  exchanging  for  curiosities, 
and  they  proved  to  be  so  here.  I  shall  never  forget 
the  delight  of  one  young  girl  of  about,  perhaps, 
sixteen  years,  when  she  first  beheld  her  grinning  face 
in  the  mirror.  She  simply  yelled  with  delight,  and 
bolted  with  the  glass  as  soon  as  her  friends  flocked 
round  to  see  what  was  pleasing  her  so  much. 

Slatin  Pasha  had  taken  a  large  quantity  of  scarlet 
cloth  up  with  him  to  present  to  the  natives — they 
love  colour — and  the  first  present  was  made  to  a 
stalwart  chief  who  came  down  to  the  river  when 


78  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

the  boat  stopped  on  one  of  the  banks  of  the  Sobat. 
His  delight  was  evident,  but  it  never  seemed  to  occur 
to  him  at  all  that  it  could  be  converted  into  a  robe 
to  clothe  his  nakedness.  He  left  the  boat  with  the 
length  of  cloth  wound  carefully  around  his  neck,  and 
save  for  that  and  a  couple  of  ivory  armlets,  he  was 
innocent  of  clothing.  The  crew  of  the  steamer 
were  highly  delighted,  especially  when  the  Pasha's 
secretary  attempted  to  explain  how  it  should  be 
worn.  Eventually  he  was  persuaded  to  use  it  as 
a  robe,  but  he  evidently  thought  that  it  was  a  waste 
of  good  material. 

We  went  up  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Sobat,  to- 
wards Abyssinia,  and  when  we  neared  its  borders  the 
river  grew  more  narrow  and  difficult  to  navigate  every 
hour ;  we  at  length  decided  to  tie  up  for  the  night, 
and  turn  on  our  homeward  journey  the  following 
morning.  That  evening,  however,  we  collected  some 
of  the  inhabitants,  who  were  particularly  shy  in  this 
part ;  and  it  was  well  we  did  so,  for  they  were  full 
of  an  account  of  a  white  man  with  an  armed  following, 
who  was  said  to  be  some  twenty  miles  further  up  the 
river. 

Early  next  morning  we  pushed  ahead  again,  though 
it  was  very  difficult  to  make  a  passage  through  the 
weeds  and  undergrowth  of  the  smTounding  forests 
which  stretched  far  across  the  water.  It  was  the  first 
time  that  a  steamer  had  ever  been  up  so  far,  and 
a  dozen  times  we  were  on  the  point  of  giving  up 
in  despair.  At  last  we  got  into  a  short  stretch  of 
comparatively  open  water,  but  the  next  moment  we 


A   VOYAGE    OF   DISCOVERY  79 

saw  that  there  was  no  river  visible  at  all  beyond,  the 
channel  being  completely  obstructed  by  vegetation, 
and  we  decided  to  turn  back.  We  went  a  few  yards 
ahead  to  turn,  and  crashed  into  the  trees  at  the  side. 
Immediately  afterwards,  dozens  of  heads  appeared 
at  the  top  of  the  bank,  and  among  them  stood  the 
typical  Robinson  Crusoe  of  our  childhood,  except 
that  the  stranded  traveller,  in  this  case,  wore  a 
monocle.  Otherwise,  he  was  perfect,  the  same  that 
we  have  all  loved  as  children,  even  to  the  skins  which 
clothed  his  body.  We  had  failed  to  find  the  men 
whom  we  had  been  seeking  in  the  first  place,  but  we 
had  stumbled  at  the  last  moment  on  a  white  man 
sorely  in  need  of  assistance.  He  was  a  German  pro- 
fessor, who  had  come  to  Africa  on  a  tour  of  explora- 
tion. He  had  missed  his  way  in  the  first  place,  and 
then  sickness  set  in  among  his  porters,  with  the  result 
that  his  progress  had  been  very  slow.  The  party  had 
been  without  food  for  three  days  when  we  came 
across  them,  except  for  such  meat  which  they  were 
able  to  shoot,  and  this,  though  satisfying,  is  dangerous 
when  one  has  no  vegetables,  or  even  jam  or  bread,  to 
eat  at  the  same  time.  Jam  is,  by  the  way,  an 
excellent  substitute  for  vegetables,  and  will  often 
ward  ofi  the  sicknesses  which  arise  from  want  of  the 
latter  food. 

The  whole  party  came  on  board,  with  what  baggage 
they  possessed,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  after  the 
encounter  we  were  under  way  again,  heading  towards 
the  north.  The  boat  was  pretty  well  crowded  out 
with  men  and  stores,  but  the  new  arrivals  were  all 


80  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

in  such  excellent  spirits  that  it  was  nice  to  have  them, 
even  though  it  caused  a  good  deal  of  discomfort  on 
board,  since  every  gangway  was  filled  with  packing- 
cases,  saddles,  etc.  The  carriers,  of  course,  confined 
themselves  strictly  to  the  lower  deck.  They  were 
absolutely  different  to  the  Sudanese,  or  to  any  race 
that  I  have  seen  before,  and  presented  a  very  marked 
contrast  to  the  lanky,  thin  tribes  which  lined  the 
banks  of  the  country  through  which  we  were  passing. 
They  were  rather  short,  and  very  sturdy,  and  re- 
sembled the  inhabitants  of  the  Belgian  Congo,  whom 
I  saw  at  a  later  date.  The  spot  where  we  came  across 
them  was  actually  in  Abyssinian  territory,  though 
I  think  that  at  the  time  the  owners  paid  very  little 
heed  to  that  part  of  their  dominions.  It  is  all  quite 
difierent  now,  when  increased  facilities  of  transport 
to  the  Sudan  have  made  every  inch  of  land  in  the 
district  of  possible  agricultural  value. 

The  rains  were  getting  pretty  bad  as  we  descended 
the  river,  and  it  only  required  one  sharp  shower  to 
prove  that  the  boat  leaked  in  every  seam.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  nights  I  spent  on  the  old  Amkeh 
now  entirely  renovated,  and  quite  a  smart  boat.  She 
was  then  the  veriest  wreck  on  the  Nile,  at  least  I 
should  imagine  so,  as  by  all  the  laws  of  comparison  it 
would  be  impossible  for  there  to  be  a  worse.  At  first 
I  used  to  resent  the  trickhng  of  water  down  the  nape 
of  my  neck,  and  as  the  only  really  dry  spot  on  board, 
which  was  under  the  dining-room  table,  was  already 
occupied  by  the  Pasha  in  virtue  of  his  rank,  I  used 
to  spend  my  nights  roaming  about  from  cabin  to 


A   VOYAGE    OF   DISCOVERY  81 

cabin,  followed  by  an  approving  chorus  of  mosquitoes, 
who,  like  myself,  objected  to  the  rain.  Eventually, 
I  settled  on  the  bathroom  as  being  the  next  best 
place  to  the  one  already  alluded  to ;  it  was  then 
comparatively  dry,  and  the  bath,  though  somewhat 
cramped,  was  more  comfortable  than  one  would 
imagine. 

Long  before  I  had  spent  a  month  in  the  rains, 
however,  I  had  come  to  the  happy  state  of  being 
able  to  sleep  with  equal  comfort  in  the  wet  or  in  the 
dry,  which  was  an  undoubted  advantage  at  the  time, 
but  which  laid  the  seeds  of  that  rheumatism  which 
is  now  making  itself  felt  between  my  shoulders 
as  I  write.  The  mornings  were  unhealthy  but 
absolutely  lovely ;  the  river  would  be  covered  with 
a  thick  white  mist,  so  thick  that  it  was  impossible 
to  see  for  more  than  a  dozen  yards  ahead  of  the  boat ; 
then  as  the  power  of  the  sun  began  to  make  itself 
felt,  the  mist  would  gradually  dissolve,  leaving  the 
world  green,  and  fresh,  and  clean.  Occasionally, 
one  would  see  a  water-buck  dash  away  not  a  hundred 
yards  from  the  river,  and  the  water  itself  swarmed 
with  hippopotami ;  monstrous  heads  would  appear 
suddenly  close  to  the  bow,  to  disappear  with  a  snort 
of  disgust  as  they  realised  the  unwonted  size  of  the 
approaching  craft.  Huge  hideous  faces  of  animals 
which  have  been  left  over  from  prehistoric  days  by 
mistake ;  they  have  no  place  in  the  twentieth 
century,  when  even  in  our  animals  we  are  refined  and 
genteel ! 

Some  of  the  younger  and  more  sporting  members  of 


82  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

the  clan,  resenting  the  invasion  of  their  own  particular 
stretch  of  water,  would  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  boat, 
puffing  and  snorting,  but  though  they  made  a  great 
display  of  bravery,  they  were  always  careful  to 
avoid  coming  into  contact  with  the  wheel  of  the 
steamer.  In  the  Bahr  -  el  -  Ghazal  these  animals 
overturned  a  felucca  containing  mails,  twice  in  a 
month,  and  it  was  found  necessary  to  issue  permis- 
sion to  shoot  at  them  from  the  steamers  or  boats. 
In  this  manner,  of  course,  great  numbers  have  either 
been  killed  outright,  or  have  subsequently  died  of 
their  wounds,  but  the  rivers  to  the  south  are  still  well 
stocked,  and  as  long  as  they  are  not  allowed  to 
constitute  an  actual  danger  to  life  or  property,  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  be  preserved.  They 
are  not  like  the  crocodile,  which  is  a  constant  danger 
to  anything  that  comes  within  its  reach.  I  have 
only  heard  of  one  hippopotamus  which  attacked  a 
man,  and  that  was  an  instance  recorded  in  one  of 
Sir  Samuel  Baker's  books. 

The  Sobat  river  has  a  large  number  of  water-snakes, 
whose  gliding  forms  are  of  brilliant  scarlet  and 
green,  they  are  not  poisonous,  but  their  less  notice- 
able brother,  the  small  black  water-snake,  should 
be  given  a  very  wide  berth  ;  he  is  as  quick  as  light- 
ning and  quite  as  dangerous.  I  recollect  once  having 
a  startling  experience  with  one  of  these  reptiles  at 
Taufikier.  I  went  into  the  bathroom  one  afternoon 
for  my  customary  tub,  and  there  was  a  black  snake 
curled  round  the  water-pipe,  apparently  asleep.  For 
the  first  moment  I  fancied  that  he  had  been  put 


A   VOYAGE    OF   DISCOVERY  83 

there,  dead,  by  a  man  who  was  on  board,  and  who 
was,  I  knew,  rather  given  to  the  making  of  practical 
jokes.  I  moved  on.  In  an  instant  the  small  head 
shot  forth,  and  missed  me  by  an  inch  !  I  beat  a 
hasty  retreat  and  called  for  the  sailors  to  clean  the 
bathroom.  Of  course  I  stood  close  at  hand  to  see 
that  they  did  not  unwittingly  run  any  real  danger, 
but  the  first  man  who  went  in  was  quite  equal  to  the 
situation.  He  came  out  very  hastily,  murmuring 
that  he  was  going  to  fetch  another  brush,  and  moved 
away.  Then,  as  though  it  were  an  after-thought, 
he  called  back  over  his  shoulder  to  one  of  his  com- 
panions to  go  in  and  see  if  there  was  a  bucket  in  the 
room.  The  other  man  went,  but  his  self-control 
was  not  equal  to  that  of  the  first.  There  was  a  volley 
of  ya  salaams  from  the  interior  for  a  brief  second, 
and  then  he  appeared  at  the  door,  as  nearly  white 
as  a  black  man  can  be.  Eventually  the  reptile  was 
killed,  but  not  before  it  had  very  nearly  darted 
over  the  side,  and  many  of  the  men  who  were  trying 
to  kill  it  had  narrow  escapes.  How  it  got  into  the 
bathroom  remains  a  mystery,  the  door  when  I  went 
there  first  was  tight  shut,  and  it  had  not  certainly 
been  there  half  an  hour  before  luncheon.  It  was  a 
very  long  time  before  I  recovered  from  the  fright 
that  it  had  given  me,  and  I  was  careful  to  wear 
slippers  when  walking  about  the  deck,  a  custom 
which  I  had  never  got  into  before. 

This  reminds  me  of  an  awful  experience  of  one 
of  my  friends,  who  was  somewhere  in  the  wilds  of 
Egypt  or  the  Sudan,   I   forget  which.     Late  one 


84  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

evening  he  went  into  his  tent  to  change  his  clothes, 
and  had  just  started  to  take  off  his  putties  when 
someone  called  to  him,  and  he  went  to  the  door. 
The  conversation  finished,  he  turned  to  enter  the 
tent  again,  when,  glancing  down,  he  saw  a  big  brown 
snake  at  his  feet.  With  a  yell,  he  rushed  out  in  the 
desert.  Glancing  round  a  moment  later  as  he  thought 
that  he  felt  something  clutch  at  his  leg,  his  feeling 
can  be  better  imagined  than  described,  when  he 
saw  that  he  was  being  followed  by  an  awful  appari- 
tion, which  appeared  in  the  dusk  to  be  growing 
in  size  each  moment.  By  this  time,  however,  other 
men,  attracted  by  his  cries,  came  to  his  assistance, 
and  it  was  only  then  discovered  that  the  reptile  of 
his  imagination  was  in  reality  only  his  half-unwound 
puttie.  I  believe  that  he  is  known  as  "  Snakes  " 
throughout  the  country  now. 

I  have  always  regretted  that  I  did  not  keep  some 
of  the  coloured  snakes,  they  were  well  worth  the 
trouble  of  preserving;  but  as  is  so  often  the  case, 
I  had  nothing  handy  to  cure  them  in  when  chance 
offered,  and  I  always  thought  that  I  would  have 
plenty  more  opportunities  of  getting  them,  with  the 
consequence  that  I  left  the  country  without  a  speci- 
men. 

The  rainy  season,  unhealthy  and  fever-giving 
though  it  is,  is  extremely  fascinating  by  reason  of 
the  wonderful  skies  which  it  brings.  It  is  impossible 
to  describe  the  splendour  of  the  storm-ridden  sky, 
as  the  clouds  gather  angrily  before  a  heavy  fall  of 
rain.    There  is  every  colour  that  it  is  impossible  to 


A   VOYAGE    OF   DISCOVERY  85 

imagine ;  from  jet  black  to  the  lightest  tint  of 
purple.  Restless  and  heaving,  the  clouds  are  awe- 
inspiring  in  their  wonder ;  it  is  terrible,  and  in  some 
way  suggestive  of  an  inferno.  As  the  storm  draws 
nearer,  the  gleams  of  lightning,  which  have  been 
flickering  away  in  the  distance,  grow  each  moment 
more  brilliant ;  the  darkness  of  the  grotesque  and 
changing  mountains  of  clouds  are  lit  up  and  rendered 
still  more  magnificent  by  the  broad  sheets  of  light, 
as  they  strike  the  mass  in  twain  and  linger  for  the 
fraction  of  a  second,  eagerly  licking  the  fringe  of 
the  cloud.  The  rain  when  it  falls  to  the  tune  of 
tropical  thunder  and  to  the  illumination  of  Hghtning, 
like  that  which  cleaves  the  blackness  of  an  African 
night  in  the  storm  season,  falls  with  a  directness 
and  force  that  is  like  the  opening  of  the  sluice  gates 
of  heaven.  Fierce  and  blinding,  the  first  quarter 
of  a  minute  is  sufficient  to  saturate  any  district, 
notwithstanding  the  fissures  and  cracks  in  the  sun- 
dried  land,  which  stand  gaping  and  greedy  for  the 
first  drop  of  moisture  which  comes  with  the  rains. 
The  effect  is  magical,  one  day  you  have  open 
plains  of  dull-coloured  and  stunted  vegetation,  the 
next  and  you  walk  knee-deep  in  a  waving  height 
of  green  grass ;  a  week  later  and  you  must  fight  your 
way  through  a  tangle  that  tops  the  head  of  the 
tallest  man.  How  the  animals  must  welcome  it ! 
There  is  no  shooting  now,  cover  is  to  be  found  in 
every  yard  of  the  country,  food  at  every  step,  drink 
at  every  point  where  the  footfall  of  a  passing  elephant 
or  hippopotamus  has  left  a  cup  in  the  earth. 


86  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

Even  before  the  rains  have  begun  in  the  Sudan,  the 
great  river  has  shown  signs  of  waking  to  a  sense  of 
its  responsibility  towards  the  dwellers  on  its  banks, 
and  is  coming  down  with  the  marvellous  energy 
which  it  retains  during  its  passage  through  three 
thousand  miles  of  sun-beaten  and  arid  lands,  every 
square  inch  of  which  is  calling  aloud  for  its  quota 
of  moisture  from  the  river  as  it  passes.  Up  in  the 
mountains  of  Abyssinia  the  rains  have  already 
started  to  fall,  and  the  mountain  gorges  are  witnesses 
to  the  departure  of  the  flood,  which  is  destined  to  hold 
life  in  the  people  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  It  is  necessary 
to  follow  the  Nile  in  its  courses  through  the  Sudan, 
before  it  is  possible  to  appreciate  accurately  the 
wonder  of  it  all.  The  countries  of  Egypt  and  the 
Sudan  are  absolutely  dependent  upon  that  river, 
which  the  tourist  sees  languidly  flowing  under  the 
piers  of  the  Kasr-el-Nil  bridge.  If  it  stopped  for  a 
week,  for  a  day  even,  the  hand  of  Death  would 
sweep  the  country  clean,  and  desolate  as  the  tombs 
which  mark  the  resting-place  of  the  Kings  of  Egypt, 
silent  as  the  desert  which  stretches  away  into  space 
from  Omdurman,  the  valley  of  the  Nile  would  teem 
with  life  no  more,  and  the  green  of  its  banks  would 
fade  to  rusty  brown,  though  denied  the  luxury  of 
decay  by  the  absolute  dryness  of  the  atmosphere. 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  natives  of  Egypt 
placed  the  life-giving  spirit  of  the  Nile  high  among 
the  gods  of  the  past.  Searching  around  in  all  direc- 
tions for  a  Deity  which  would  satisfy  their  inherent 
desire  for  a  god  worthy  of  the  devotion  and  homage 


A   VOYAGE   OF   DISCOVERY  87 

which  they  were  so  eager  to  impart,  it  is  small 
wonder  that  they  turned  their  attention  to  the 
flowing  waters  by  which,  and  through  which,  they 
Uved.  Of  its  origin  they  knew  nothing ;  it  was 
sufficient  knowledge  that  the  land  they  loved  was 
dependent  upon  its  gifts,  that  they  themselves 
existed  solely  by  its  grace. 

Unfortunately  I  have  never  been  to  the  great 
lakes  in  the  south  from  which  it  springs ;  it  was 
alw^ays  my  intention  to  leave  the  country  by  that 
route  when  I  went  away  for  the  last  time.  How- 
ever, I  did  not ;  I  left  the  country  with  my  leg  in 
splints,  and,  according  to  the  doctors,  with  a 
malarial  microbe  located  in  the  joint  of  my  knee. 

When  we  returned  to  Taufikier  the  whole  face  of 
the  country  had  changed ;  the  plain  to  the  back  of 
the  town  was  a  beautiful  mass  of  waving  grass,  the 
young  trees  were  green  and  fresh  with  a  luxuriance 
of  leaf,  and  the  ground  was  soft  and  springy  under 
foot. 

I  recollect  our  arrival.  It  was  in  the  early  hours 
of  the  morning ;  we  had  left  a  wood  station  about 
4  a.m.,  and  arrived  at  Taufikier  about  three-quarters 
of  an  hour  later.  I  had  put  my  bed  on  the  first  deck, 
in  the  bows,  and  was  suddenly  awakened  by  the 
telegraph  wire,  which  ran  close  to  my  head,  ringing 
furiously.  We  were  still  some  distance  off  the 
landing  stage,  and  I  could  not  imagine  what  had 
happened,  till  a  storm  of  thoroughly  British  curses 
came  floating  on  the  morning  air  from  the  bank. 

There  I  beheld  a  Bimbashi  busy  with  his  fishing 


88  FIVE   YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

lines.  He  had  put  them  out  over-night  and  had 
caught  all  the  passing  sudd  of  the  district,  and  he 
was  feverishly  trying  to  extricate  the  line  before 
the  boat  caught  the  sudd,  and  bore  everything, 
including  the  precious  lengths  of  line,  away  into 
the  open  river.  That  was  the  first  thing  for  which 
the  day  was  noticeable  ;  the  second  was  that  I  met 
a  wandering  Greek  trader  in  the  village  during  the 
course  of  the  day  and  purchased  some  "  Turkish 
Delight "  from  him.  Oh,  how  I  had  craved  for 
sweets  !  I  can  remember  it  now  ;  jam  would  not 
satisfy  me,  I  wanted  something  sweeter  still.  I 
demolished  two  small  boxes  in  a  few  minutes.  I 
should  think  that  this  craving  for  sweets  must  be 
much  the  same  as  of  a  drunkard  for  liquor  ;  it  is  not 
common,  indeed  I  have  only  met  one  man  who  felt 
the  need  of  it  as  much  as  I  did.  I  do  not  know  what 
caused  it ;  later  a  kind  friend  wanted  me  to  see  a 
doctor,  as  he  thought  that  I  was  getting  diabetes ! 

From  Taufikier  we  went  straight  down  to  Om- 
durman,  but  there  was  nothing  of  interest  en  route. 
The  thing  that  impressed  me  most  was  the  rain, 
which  fell  every  night  with  clock-Uke  regularity. 
I  was  used  to  it  now  and  could  sleep  through  it ; 
but  it  was  annoying  nevertheless,  especially  when 
it  found  its  way  into  the  boxes  containing  the  clothes 
that  I  proposed  wearing  the  next  morning.  As  we 
got  near  to  Khartoum  we  ran  out  of  the  sphere  of 
the  rains,  and  the  broad,  gleaming  desert  was  like 
an  old  friend  extending  outstretched  hands  of 
welcome. 


CHAPTER   V 

ELEPHANT   SHOOTING   AND   SUDD   FIGHTING 

SOUTH  of  Taufikier,  the  Bahr-el-Abyad  runs  in 
a  narrow  channel ;  it  is  deep  and  swift,  and 
more  like  a  river  at  home  than  it  is  in  its  broader 
courses  further  north.  There  are  numerous  villages 
on  the  left  bank,  some  of  them  lying  not  more 
than  a  couple  of  miles  apart,  but  their  inhabitants 
keep  entirely  to  themselves  and  have  nothing  to  do 
with  their  neighbours.  There  is  a  fair  amount  of 
game  here,  white-eared  cob,  water-buck,  and  an 
occasional  antelope  of  the  rarer  species. 

There  is  a  spot  on  the  left  bank  that  I  shall  always 
think  of  with  affection,  for  I  stopped  there  once  for 
game,  when  I  had  been  up  in  the  sudd  region  for  some 
time,  and  had  no  fresh  meat  except  that  of  a  hippo- 
potamus which  I  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  shoot 
on  shore.  Hippopotamus  is  not  bad  eating ;  but  it  is, 
as  may  be  imagined,  fearfully  tough,  and  I  had  been 
rather  spoilt  by  constant  supplies  of  venison.  On  my 
return  I  spotted  a  herd  of  white-eared  cob  in  a  clearing 
on  the  bank,  and  landed  to  see  if  I  could  get  a  shot. 
The  shooting  season  was  really  over  ;  and  the  grass, 
shoulder  high,  made  it  very  difficult  to  come  up  with 
the  animals ;  no  matter  how  cautiously  you  crept,  they 
invariably  saw  or  heard  you  before  you  could  get  in 

8U 


90  FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

your  shot.  At  last  I  got  desperate  ;  it  was  fearfully- 
hot  and  also  I  was  pressed  for  time,  so  seeing  the  head 
of  an  animal  above  the  grass  about  a  hundred  yards 
away,  I  took  a  chance  shot  where  I  imagined  the 
body  would  be.  The  head  dropped  and  I  was  de- 
lighted ;  then  as  I  moved  forward  eagerly  to  retrieve, 
another  fine  young  cob  sprang  up  about  fifty  yards 
ahead  of  me,  and  went  bounding  away.  As  I  had 
already  fired,  a  second  shot  did  not  matter,  even  if 
the  noise  scared  the  herd  away ;  the  one  I  had 
already  killed  would  yield  a  quantity  of  meat,  though 
we  could  well  have  done  with  another,  as  my  men  had, 
like  myself,  become  accustomed  to  good  living,  and 
resented  being  without  their  usual  supply  of  tender 
meat.  I  took  a  flying  shot  at  it  as  it  rose  to  bound 
over  an  ant-heap,  and  to  my  enormous  surprise  it  fell 
to  the  shot.  I  was  not  a  very  good  rifle-shot  in  those 
days ;  I  was  always  uncertain  to  a  fearful  degree, 
and  could  never  be  sure  of  my  day.  There  were  great 
rejoicings  when  the  animals  were  brought  in,  and  we 
stopped  early  that  night  to  celebrate  the  double 
event — of  getting  out  of  the  sudd  region  and  having 
a  renewed  supply  of  venison. 

But  it  was  lonely  work  sometimes  as  the  sun  went 
down,  and  I  think  that  I  used  to  feel  it  more  when  I 
had  been  having  a  successful  day  with  the  gun  than 
I  did  at  other  times.  There  was  no  one  to  talk  it  all 
over  with ;  there  was  nothing  to  do  when  the  sun 
had  once  fallen,  but  feed,  and  drop  into  bed.  Then, 
with  thousands  of  mosquitoes  making  hideous  music 
in  my  ears,  I  would  read  till  I  could  read  no  more, 


V-      "•*'2'_4?^«r5?"-" 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  91 

and  fall  to  sleep  as  soon  as  possible.  I  must  say  that 
I  never  found  much  difficulty  in  doing  this  even  when 
in  normal  health ;  later,  when  I  had  developed  a 
Sudan  liver,  it  was  agony  sometimes  to  have  to  keep 
awake  at  all ;  but  I  had  every  cause  to  be  thankful 
that  I  was  able  to  sleep  when  I  was  in  the  swamps 
of  the  Upper  Nile. 

The  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  which  literally  translated 
means  the  "  Eiver  of  the  Gazelles,"  is  a  direct  con- 
tinuation of  the  White  Nile,  though  it  is  in  reality 
only  a  tributary  ;  the  Bahr-el-Gebel  (the  River  of  the 
Mountains) ,  which  meets  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  at  Lake 
No,  at  the  northern  end  of  the  sudd,  being  the  main 
river.  The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  is  well  named,  at  least  it 
would  be  if  the  word  "  game  "  or  "  antelope  "  had 
been  substituted  for  gazelle,  for  it  is  full  of  antelope 
and  other  game  from  its  source  to  its  mouth. 

It  was  up  this  river  that  I  got  first  blood.  On  my 
trip  up  the  Sobat  I  had  necessarily  to  confine  myself 
to  the  shooting  of  small  game  and  birds  ;  but  by 
the  time  I  went  up  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  I  had  a  rifle, 
and  got  a  fine  young  water-buck  the  first  afternoon 
that  I  went  out  shooting.  Incidentally  I  nearly  got 
lost  on  my  return  home  ;  the  man  whom  I  had  taken 
as  guide  was  not  half  as  sharp  as  the  natives  usually 
are,  and  when  at  last  we  turned  to  go  back  to  the  boat 
I  found  that  we  were  wandering  aimlessly  about.  It 
had  been  a  dull  afternoon,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
tell  where  the  sun  had  set.  Eventually,  just  as  we 
came  to  a  khor  and  had  decided  to  follow  it,  I  saw  a 
light  in  the  distance  and  determined  to  move  in  its 


92  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

direction  ;  anything  was  better  than  wandering  in  the 
growing  dark.  My  guide  protested  that  it  would  lead 
us  far  from  the  right  road,  but  a  light  speaks  of  human 
habitation  even  though  it  be  but  a  savage  one,  and  I 
held  to  my  resolution.  It  was  fortunate  that  I  did 
so,  for  it  proved  to  be  a  head-light  on  board  my  own 
steamer,  placed  there  by  the  thoughful  reis  to  guide 
us  home  through  the  forest.  I  was  always  careful 
to  take  a  reliable  guide  on  subsequent  occasions  ; 
it  is  not  a  pleasant  thing  to  contemplate  a  night  in 
the  forests,  especially  if  the  coming  dawn  will  in  all 
probability  leave  you  as  much  lost  as  you  were  at 
nightfall. 

I  always  like  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  though  I  have  had 
some  trying  experiences  there  at  times.  It  is  ex- 
ceedingly narrow ;  there  are  few  places  where  two 
steamers  of  ordinary  beam  could  pass  each  other ; 
but  its  banks  are  for  the  most  part  fairly  hard,  and 
it  is  possible  to  land  at  almost  any  point  in  the 
northern  reach  of  the  river.  Later,  one  comes  into  a 
certain  amount  of  sudd,  but  even  here  there  are 
usually  places  where  it  is  easy  to  get  ashore.  One's 
chief  occupation  is  to  sit  on  the  top  deck  with  a  good 
pair  of  glasses  and  watch  the  game  browsing  in  the 
distance.  White-eared  cob  are  very  plentiful,  though 
there  many  other  kinds  of  antelope  too,  including 
the  rare  Mrs.  Grey's  antelope,  which  is  much  sought 
after.  I  was  never  fortunate  enough  to  get  one ; 
Mr.  G.  B.  Middleton,  one  of  the  keenest  sportsmen 
whom  I  met  in  the  Sudan,  has,  I  believe,  the  record 
head  of  the  country. 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  93 

He  shot  several  during  the  time  that  he  was  in  the 
Sudan,  and  had  very  hard  luck  in  connection  with 
the  animal  at  last.  Under  the  later  game  laws, 
a  man  was  only  allowed  to  shoot  one  a  year,  as 
they  are  very  rare.  Mr.  Middleton  saw  a  fine 
young  buck  one  morning,  and  immediately  went  out 
after  it.  The  grass  was  long,  and  it  was  difficult  to 
get  a  glimpse  of  it ;  however,  after  a  long  stalk  he 
got  a  steady  shot  at  about  forty  yards,  and  the  animal 
fell.  He  walked  on  slowly,  keeping  his  eye  on  the 
spot ;  but  to  his  surprise,  when  he  had  got  to  within 
a  yard  or  so  of  the  place,  he  saw  what  he  took  to  be 
the  same  animal,  standing  looking  at  him,  about 
thirty  yards  further  on.  Thinking  that  it  had  re- 
covered sufficiently  from  its  first  wound  to  move  on, 
he  fired  again,  and  again  the  animal  dropped.  He 
walked  on,  but  had  not  gone  two  yards  before  he 
stumbled  over  the  first  one  he  had  killed.  Thus  he 
had  two  animals  on  his  hands,  when  he  should  only 
have  had  one.  He  reported  the  matter  to  head- 
quarters, explaining  how  the  incident  had  occurred, 
and  pointing  out  that  the  measurements  of  the  heads 
were  within  an  inch  or  so  of  each  other,  thus  proving 
how  very  easy  it  was  for  the  mistake  to  have  hap- 
pened. He  was  fined  the  maximum  penalty  of  ten 
pounds,  though  it  was  his  first  offence  against  the 
game  laws  of  the  country.  He  was  known  as  an  en- 
thusiastic and  humane  sportsman,  and  he  had  com- 
mitted a  mistake  that  nine  men  out  of  ten  would 
have  made  under  similar  circumstances. 

That  was  one  instance  of  the  way  in  which  the 


94  FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

game  laws  were  enforced  ;  this  is  another.  An  order 
was  issued  by  his  Excellency  the  Governor-General 
to  the  effect  that  anyone  shooting  at  any  animal  other 
than  a  lion,  leopard,  or  crocodile  from  a  steamer  or 
boat — I  do  not  recollect  the  precise  wording  of  the 
order,  but  I  know  that  those  animals  alone  were  ex- 
cepted— would  be  fined  a  penalty  not  exceeding 
one  hundred  pounds  for  the  first  offence.  Shortly 
after  this  order  had  been  issued,  a  party  of  higher 
officials  of  the  Sudan  Government  went  up  river. 
I  am  not  quite  sure  of  the  number,  but  I  believe  it 
was  eight.  An  elephant  was  sighted  up  in  the  sudd 
region,  and,  according  to  the  "  social  diary  ''  which 
was  pubHshed  in  Khartoum  and  circulated  among  the 
officials  of  the  Government,  the  party,  "  with  well- 
directed  efforts  from  the  steamer,  succeeded  in 
securing  a  fine  tusker."  There  was  no  fine  imposed 
in  this  instance. 

The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  district  is  noted  for  the  huge 
apes  which  inhabit  it ;  they  are  fearsome-looking 
creatures,  standing  half  as  high  as  a  man ;  they 
invariably  follow  if  you  land  to  shoot,  but  they 
usually  keep  at  a  respectable  distance  from  men.  It 
is  rather  unnerving,  all  the  same,  to  know  that  they  are 
in  constant  attendance,  for  they  are  intensely  power- 
ful, and  to  shoot  one  would  be  almost  Hke  committing 
murder,  so  human  do  they  look.  There  are  weird 
and  terrible  tales  of  attacks  which  they  have  made 
on  soHtary  women,  and  the  native  women  are  terri- 
fied of  them. 

It  was  also  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  that  I  got  my 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  96 

first  elephant.  I  had  just  passed  through  one  of  the 
most  miserable  weeks  that  I  can  remember  on  the 
trying  duty  of  ""  waiting  orders."  The  river  had 
fallen  considerably,  and  it  was  not  possible  to  get  to 
Meshr-el-Rek.  This  little  town  Ues  at  the  southern- 
most end  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  and  in  the  days  before 
the  Jur  River  was  opened  for  traffic,  it  was  the 
dumping-place  for  stores  en  route  to  Wau  and  other 
towns  of  the  interior  of  the  province.  At  the  time 
of  the  rains  it  is  literally  an  island  ;  there  is  scarcely 
any  current  in  the  river  which  passes  it,  and  all 
round  lie  mosquito-infested  swamps,  through  which 
troops  and  carriers  had  to  wade  in  order  to  get  to  the 
interior.  At  times  of  low  water  stores  are  taken  up 
the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  to  a  point  within  about  twenty- 
five  miles  of  the  town,  and  are  there  transferred  to 
shallow -draught  barges,  which  are  towed  the  re- 
mainder of  the  distance  by  miniature  stern-wheel 
steamers  which  have  been  specially  built  for  use  on 
the  rivers  where  the  navigation  of  larger  craft  is  im- 
possible. 

I  was  instructed  to  await  the  arrival  of  one  of  these 
shallow-draught  stern-wheelers  which  was  at  that 
time  up  the  River  Jur,  a  tributary  of  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal  which  runs  up  to  Wau,  the  capital  of  the 
province.  I  dared  not  move,  as  dispatches  of  im- 
portance were  expected,  and  it  was  quite  possible 
that  on  her  arrival  she  would  be  too  short  of  fuel  to 
proceed  any  further  north.  It  was  necessary  for  a 
boat  of  even  so  shallow  a  draught  as  she  was  to  come 
down  through  the  Jur  as  light  as  she  possibly  could. 


96  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

There  was  an  ever  present  danger  of  being  landed  high 
and  dry  in  the  midst  of  a  reeking  swamp  when  once 
the  river  had  started  to  fall.  For  two  days  and  two 
nights  I  lay  anchored  in  the  lake  which  marked  the 
limit  of  navigable  water,  the  swamp  on  either  side 
prevented  my  landing,  and  I  had  nothing  to  do  except 
take  pot  shots  at  such  crocodiles  as  were  obliging 
enough  to  put  their  heads  above  water  for  a  moment. 

At  half-past  three  I  had  tea,  at  half-past  five  my 
bath,  at  six  my  dinner.  These  early  hours  were 
forced  upon  me  by  my  enemies,  the  mosquitoes. 
It  was  impossible  to  bath  when  once  the  sun  got 
low,  for  they  filled  the  bathroom ;  as  soon  as  the 
light  got  the  least  bit  dim,  out  they  would  come  in 
myriads.  For  the  same  reason  it  was  impossible  to 
dine  after  sunset,  so  I  used  to  get  it  all  over  well  before 
the  night,  and  by  the  time  it  was  really  dark  I  was 
safe  beneath  my  curtain.  But  it  was  a  miserable 
existence,  and  for  the  first  and  only  time  I  felt 
inclined  to  drink,  to  drink  for  the  sake  of  the  comfort 
of  the  spirit.  Indeed,  so  much  did  I  wish  it,  that  I 
gave  up  even  my  customary  peg  of  whisky ;  it 
may  have  been  weak,  but  I  had  seen  too  many 
strong  men  go  under,  as  the  glamour  of  the  whisky 
or  brandy  bottle  caught  hold  of  their  imaginations, 
to  give  myself  the  chance  of  doing  likewise.  But  on 
the  third  day  we  saw  a  thin  streak  of  smoke  on  the 
distant  horizon,  and  three  hours  later  I  was  steaming 
down  stream  again  with  the  mails  on  board. 

I  intended  going  as  far  as  a  good  shooting  spot 
that  I  knew  of  that  afternoon,  and  stopping  there 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  97 

to  try  and  get  some  fresh  meat.  I  had  any  amount 
of  time,  as  there  would  not  be  another  boat  to  meet 
me  at  Taufikier  for  another  two  days,  so  I  made  up 
my  mind  to  have  as  good  a  time  as  possible  now  that 
I  was  at  last  free  of  the  accursed  swamp. 

My  original  plans,  however,  fell  through ;  for  on 
rounding  a  point  in  the  upper  part  of  the  river,  we 
suddenly  came  upon  two  elephants  within  about 
fifty  yards  of  the  boat.  It  happened  to  be  a  spot  where 
we  could  land,  and  with  an  exceedingly  lucky  shot 
at  over  a  hundred  yards  I  got  the  biggest  of  the 
animals  through  the  brain.  Anyone  who  has  done 
elephant  shooting  will  know  that  it  was  purely  luck, 
for  the  brain  is  tiny ;  I  only  attempted  the  shot  on 
one  other  occasion,  and  then  missed  badly  at  about 
twenty  yards.  But  this  time  he  fell  to  the  shot, 
and  I  started  wading  out  to  him.  It  was  slow  going, 
for  the  whole  place  was  more  or  less  a  swamp,  and 
if  I  happened  to  step  into  an  elephant  track  it  meant 
being  up  to  my  neck  in  water  at  once. 

Eventually,  however,  we  saw  his  huge  back  like 
an  amateur  mountain  in  front  of  us.  My  boy  was 
with  me,  and  we  advanced  with  extreme  caution. 
There  was  a  possibility  that  he  was  only  wounded, 
and  we  would  have  looked  silly  had  he  risen,  for  the 
ground  in  which  he  was  in  his  element  was  no  joke 
to  us.  He  was  of  course  stone  dead,  and  as  soon 
as  the  fact  was  evident  to  those  on  board,  they  came 
flocking  out  as  hard  as  they  could.  The  animal 
proved  to  be  an  exceptionally  fine  tusker ;  he  was,  in 
fact,  the  record  for  an  elephant  shot  in  the  Sudan 


98  FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

in  those  days,  though  Sir  WilHam  Gars  tin  got  a 
considerably  larger  one  off  the  Bahr-el-Gebel  a 
couple  of  years  later.  Each  tusk  weighed  the  same 
to  an  ounce,  112  lbs.  The  longest  was  7  ft.  10  ins., 
and  the  other  a  few  inches  shorter. 

I  set  a  gang  on  at  once  to  cut  out  the  tusks,  a 
work  which  takes  a  very  long  time.  It  means  cutting 
right  through  the  jaw  with  axes,  and  of  course  care 
has  to  be  taken  not  to  injure  the  root  of  the  tusk  in 
the  process.  I  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  the 
men  to  settle  to  it,  so  anxious  were  they  not  to  miss 
any  honne-hoxiclie  of  the  meat  that  the  others  were 
busily  engaged  in  obtaining.  There  is  plenty  of  meat 
on  an  elephant,  and  one  would  have  thought  that 
there  could  be  no  cause  for  quarrelling,  but  I  have 
never  seen  anything  to  equal  the  scramble  and  the 
savagery  which  I  saw  that  day.  It  was  truly  a 
horrible  sight,  but  it  was  worth  seeing  once,  as  an 
evidence  of  the  savagery  which  lies  latent  in  the 
heart  of  the  people.  It  indeed  almost  exceeded 
savagery ;  my  crew  that  day  were  beasts  of  prey ; 
saturated  with  blood  and  drunk  with  greed,  they 
gave  me  an  insight  into  their  character  which 
astounded  me.  The  animal  had  fallen  as  it  stood  ; 
it  had  not  turned  over,  and  its  feet  were  firmly 
embedded  in  the  swamp.  The  attack  of  the  natives 
was  therefore  made  from  its  back,  and  in  a  very 
short  time  the  trouble  began.  It  was  sickening, 
but  at  the  same  time  its  barbarity  made  it  bearable. 
Within  a  few  minutes  of  their  arrival  from  the  boat, 
there  were  three  or  four  of  the  strongest  men  on  the 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  99 

top  of  the  animal,  hacking,  tearing  away  at  the 
flesh ;  an  entry  to  the  carcase  was  obtained,  and 
from  that  moment  they  lost  all  sense  of  human 
fellowship  ;  they  were  dogs  wrangling  over  a  bone. 
A  man  would  seize  hold  of  a  choice  scrap,  and  pre- 
pare to  cut  it  off,  another  would  see  him,  and  dropping 
the  piece  which  he  had  been  endeavouring  to  get 
before,  he  would  make  a  slash  at  the  choicer  morsel 
in  possession  of  his  companion.  Many  men  were 
badly  wounded  and  came  to  me  for  treatment 
eventually,  but  not  before  the  day  was  done  and 
there  was  no  further  chance  of  losing  any  meat.  A 
more  horrible  sight  than  my  crew  presented,  when 
at  last  they  straggled  in  from  the  swamp,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  imagine  ;  but  the  moment  that 
they  had  left  the  mangled  remains  of  the  elephant, 
they  were  the  laughing  crowd  of  yesterday,  happier, 
too,  by  reason  of  the  feast  in  store. 

We  moved  on  for  about  a  mile  or  so  that  night, 
till  we  came  to  an  open  spot  where  there  was  good, 
dry  ground  ;  and  here  the  men  landed  and  prepared 
their  meal.  There  was  nothing  in  the  nature  of  an 
orgy  now ;  they  were  enjoying  themselves  in  the 
rational,  attractive  manner  of  the  country.  The 
fires  which  they  had  kindled  all  round  their  feeding- 
place  served  to  keep  the  greater  numbers  of  the 
mosquitoes  away  ;  but  even  without  this  precaution 
they  were  not  nearly  so  troublesome  here  as  they 
had  been  in  the  more  swampy  districts  which  we 
had  just  left. 

I  went  out  with  the  shot-gun  while  there  was  still 


100        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

enough  light  to  shoot,  and  got  some  birds  for  my 
dinner;  ray  boy  netted  some  excellent  fish  as  soon 
as  we  stopped,  so  we  all  did  very  well  that  night, 
and  I  remember  how  quickly  the  discomforts  of 
the  few  previous  days  departed  from  the  minds  of 
all.  For  myself,  I  have  seldom  been  more  contented 
than  I  was  that  night;  the  noise  of  the  natives  clapping 
their  hands  to  the  tune  of  an  Eastern  lilt  a  couple 
of  hundred  yards  away  mingled  with  the  roar  of  a 
distant  lion  in  the  west,  as  I  passed  into  the  drowsy 
realms  of  sleep. 

I  went  out  shooting  again  the  next  morning,  but 
got  nothing  to  speak  of,  so,  though  I  had  still  much 
time  on  my  hands  before  I  need  put  in  an  appearance 
at  Taufikier,  I  decided  to  move  on  and  anchor  late 
in  the  afternoon  at  another  spot  where  game  was 
plentiful. 

It  was  well  that  I  came  to  this  decision,  for  we  had 
not  gone  more  than  four  or  five  miles  when  suddenly 
the  river  ceased  ;  it  was  lost  in  a  mass  of  vegetation, 
which  had  collected  since  I  passed  up  and  now 
entirely  blocked  our  passage.  It  is  a  matter  of 
some  difficulty  to  clear  these  obstructions  away, 
even  when  one  is  proceeding  up  stream  and  can 
simply  pull  the  stuff  back,  bit  by  bit,  and  let  it  float 
down  the  current ;  but  it  is  infinitely  worse  when  the 
boat  is  up  stream  of  the  block,  because  then  it  has 
to  be  cut  out  and  piled  on  the  banks.  It  is  weary 
work,  but  fortunately  on  the  present  occasion  the 
obstruction  was  composed  of  a  small  cabbage-like 
growth,  which  was  not  very  hard  to  remove  ;  indeed, 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  101 

it  would  have  been  possible  to  steam  through  it, 
but  that  the  pumps  became  choked  and  refused  to 
work.  The  only  way  of  remedying  this  was  to  send 
a  man  under  the  boat  to  where  the  uptake  was 
placed,  he  would  hang  on  to  a  cord  from  the  side 
and  dive  down,  groping  about  till  he  found  the 
obstruction.  This  occurred  about  every  five  minutes, 
and  it  was  wonderful  to  see  how  the  men  kept  at  it 
without  a  murmur  for  hours  together.  I  suppose 
they  realised  that  the  present  work  was  child's  play, 
to  what  they  might  have  been  called  upon  to  do. 

One  never  knows  what  is  going  to  happen  in  the 
Bahr-el-Ghazal.  I  recollect  on  one  occasion  we 
entered  Lake  No  from  the  north,  just  before  sunset. 
It  was  a  cloudy  day,  and  I  was  thanking  the  Powers 
that  Be  that  my  way  lay  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal 
rather  than  in  the  Bahr-el-Gebel,  where  the  smell 
of  the  sudd  is  almost  overpowering  at  times,  especi- 
ally on  dull  days.  We  crossed  the  lake,  and  before 
us  lay  an  open  channel  some  couple  of  hundred  yards 
wide,  beyond  which  the  river  narrowed  till  it  was 
barely  broad  enough  for  one  boat  to  pass  through. 
A  wind  sprang  up  just  as  we  entered  the  broader 
channel,  and  suddenly  I  became  aware  that  the 
whole  of  the  surrounding  vegetation  to  the  east  was 
bearing  in  upon  us.  We  immediately  put  on  full 
steam,  but  even  so  were  not  quite  in  time  to  save 
ourselves.  Two  minutes  later  it  was  possible  to  get 
off  the  boat  at  any  point  without  wetting  one's  feet. 
However,  we  only  had  a  few  yards  to  go,  and  managed 
to  pull  through  by  placing  the  anchor  some  distance 


102        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

ahead  of  the  boat,  and  then  winding  up  with  the 
winch,  at  the  same  time  going  full  steam  ahead  with 
the  engines. 

I  remember  that  trip  well.  It  was  full  of  excite- 
ment all  through.  The  following  morning  a  native 
woman  threw  herself  overboard,  shrieking  as  she 
went.  She  was  promptly  rescued  and  brought  to 
me.  She  informed  me  that  it  was  impossible 
for  her  to  get  on  with  her  husband,  and  she  had 
therefore  sought  to  commit  suicide.  The  sergeant 
told  me,  in  a  stage  whisper,  that  she  had  declared 
she  would  do  the  same  thing  again  the  moment 
that  she  was  released.  She  was  the  heroine  of  the 
moment.  It  seemed  a  pity  to  have  to  keep  her  under 
guard,  for  there  was  plenty  of  other  work  for  the 
men  to  do,  so  I  told  her  that  I  would  not  punish 
her  on  this  occasion,  but  that  if  she  went  overboard 
again  she  might  stop  there ;  and  I  gave  orders  to 
the  crew  in  her  hearing  that  there  was  to  be 
no  further  attempt  to  rescue  her  if  she  tried 
to  commit  suicide  a  second  time.  She  was  furious, 
and  not  a  little  hurt,  I  think  ;  it  was  not  treating 
her  with  the  respect  which  she  imagined  she  de- 
served ;  but  though  grumbhng  and  decidedly  sulky, 
she  went  back  to  her  husband  and  made  no  further 
attempt  to  drown  herself. 

Matrimonial  infelicity  appeared  to  be  contagious 
at  that  time,  for  it  was  on  the  same  trip  that  a  lady 
from  the  village  of  Meshr-el-Rek  came  on  board 
with  all  her  personal  belongings,  including  three 
children,  and  announced  her  intention  of  remaining 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  103 

as  my  servant.  Ordinary  persuasion  was  useless ; 
she  could  not  be  induced  to  move  ;  and  eventually 
she  had  to  be  turned  off  by  soldiers. 

I  saw  her  again  a  few  months  later,  when  she  ap- 
peared to  have  forgotten  her  former  troubles,  and 
to  be  perfectly  happy  and  contented. 

On  the  return  journey  of  this  eventful  trip  we 
found  the  whole  of  the  broader  channel  entirely 
blocked,  and  for  forty-eight  hours  we  worked  to  get 
into  the  clear  water  to  the  north.  We  moved  along 
inch  by  inch,  sometimes  stopping  entirely,  for  hours, 
as  the  vegetation  got  rammed  under  the  boat,  or 
interfered  with  the  working  of  the  paddle.  We 
would  put  the  anchor  out  about  fifty  yards  ahead 
and  then  work  up  to  it,  when  it  would  again  be  sent 
forward.  The  men  worked  with  unceasing  energy; 
there  were  no  complaints ;  the  dawn  would  see 
them  in  their  places  labouring  away  with  all  their 
might,  the  noonday  sun  would  strike  down  on  their 
backs  as  they  clambered  through  the  swamp  carrying 
a  heavy  anchor  to  its  next  position ;  sunset  would 
see  them  contentedly  squatted  round  their  bowls 
of  food  on  the  deck ;  an  hour  later,  and  all  was 
silence  as  they  took  their  well-deserved  rest. 

At  one  time  I  began  to  be  afraid  that  I  should  have 
to  send  a  runner  to  Taufikier  for  assistance ;  we 
had  worked  forward  about  fifty  yards ;  it  was 
impossible  to  take  more  than  a  couple  of  turns  with 
the  engine  without  the  risk  of  smashing  the  wheel, 
for  by  this  time  there  was  almost  as  much  vegetation 
under  the  boat  as  there  was  around  us. 


104        FIVE   YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

It  was  an  anxious  time,  as  we  were  naturally 
consuming  a  large  amount  of  fuel  every  hour,  for  we 
had  to  keep  up  full  steam  for  the  winch ;  but  not- 
withstanding all  this  there  is  some  fascination  in 
the  northern  regions  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  which 
goes  a  long  way  to  counteract  the  depressing  efiects 
of  such  occurrences  as  this.  There  is  always  some- 
thing to  see,  large  herds  of  game  are  nearly  always 
visible  in  the  distance,  elephant  and  ostrich  appear 
occasionally,  and  added  to  this  there  is  the  charm 
of  feeling  that  you  are  in  the  heart  of  the  wilderness ; 
where  every  breath  of  air  is  laden  with  the  scent 
of  sun-dried  grass,  where  every  sound  is  from  the 
throat  of  nature.  There  is  not  much  evil  in  the 
world  when  seen  from  such  a  place  as  this ;  even  the 
mosquitoes,  ashamed  of  their  murderous  habits, 
sUnk  away  abashed  to  the  swamps  of  the  south, 
or  to  the  filthy  hovels  of  the  north,  and  you  are  left 
in  peace  to  watch  the  glory  of  the  stars  as  they 
signal  one  to  another  of  secrets  passing  the  under- 
standing of  man,  and  which  are  known  only  to 
their  children,  the  peoples  of  the  plains  and  jungles 
about  you. 

We  had  entered  the  obstructed  channel  at  day- 
break one  morning,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  third 
day  we  still  had  about  twenty  yards  to  cover,  before 
we  would  reach  the  open  river  ahead.  Darkness 
was  falling,  and  at  length  the  reis  came  to  me  and 
asked  if  the  men  might  stop  for  the  night.  It  seemed 
hopeless  that  we  could  get  through,  so  I  consented. 
As  he  turned  to  leave  me,  a  Light  breeze  sprang  up, 


ELEPHANT   SHOOTING  105 

the  vegetation  with  which  we  had  been  fighting 
for  so  many  weary  hours  receded  under  its  pressure, 
and  in  a  few  seconds  there  was  a  channel  fully  a 
hundred  yards  in  our  wake,  and  one  of  the  same 
width  in  front  of  us,  where  a  few  minutes  before 
the  men  had  been  struggling  on  practically  dry 
land. 

But  I  have  wandered  far  from  the  trip  of  which 
I  was  writing  originally,  where  the  obstruction  was 
only  of  a  cabbage-like  vegetation.  On  this  occasion 
we  got  through  in  about  two  hours,  but  it  upset 
all  thoughts  of  shooting  for  the  rest  of  the  trip. 
There  always  remained  the  possibility  of  our  being 
stuck  further  to  the  north,  and  though,  as  it  turned 
out,  the  way  was  clear,  it  was  too  present  a  danger 
to  risk  at  the  time. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL,    ITS    INHABITANTS    AND    SPORT 

THE  sky-liue  of  the  plain  as  it  meets  the  eye 
from  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  River  marked  the  limit 
of  the  white  men's  knowledge  of  the  tribes  which 
inhabit  these  parts ;  further  south  the  English  had 
penetrated  through  and  through  the  country,  but 
this  district  had  been  left  unexplored  and  uncared 
for.  There  would  be  no  immediate  advantage  in 
pressing  through  into  these  dominions ;  from  all  re- 
ports there  is  nothing  that  renders  such  an  action 
necessary,  and  the  inhabitants  would  in  all  prob- 
abiHty  be  savages.  The  tribes  which  live  on  the 
plains  in  the  northern  stretches  of  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal  are  timid  even  yet ;  but  every  day  will  bring 
them  a  greater  confidence  in  the  Government,  when 
they  find  that  they  are  left  in  peace  from  year  to 
year,  and  that  there  is  no  longer  any  need  to  fear  the 
raids  of  slave-traders.  An  expedition  would  there- 
fore do  no  more  than  bring  about — at  an  increased 
cost — the  ends  which  are  already  being  accomplished 
by  passive  means.  In  the  interior,  to  the  south  of 
the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  the  French  were,  of  course,  the 
pioneers  of  civiUsation,  and  the  natives  were  already 
trained  to  a  rough  knowledge  of  white  people  and 

106 


THE   BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  107 

their  methods  of  administration  before  we  took  on 
the  task  of  governing  them.  But  though  this  is  the 
case,  the  laws  of  the  country  are  Httle  altered  in  their 
essentials  from  the  day  when  we  took  it  over ;  for 
once,  England  has  not  been  over  eager  to  graft 
changes  on  a  country  that  is  not  ready  for  them. 
/^  The  following  instance  will  prove  how  little  the 
laws  of  the  ancient  regime  of  might  had  been  altered. 
A  short  time  after  my  arrival  in  the  Sudan,  a  native 
of  this  province  was  caught  red-handed  in  the  act  of 
steahng  his  neighbour's  grain  while  it  was  still  barely 
ripe.  The  laws  of  the  country  have  one  penalty  for 
a  crime  of  this  nature  :  immediate  death.  The  un- 
fortunate man  was  saved  from  the  hands  of  the  sur- 
rounding tribe  with  difficulty,  and  was  brought  before 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  district  for  trial.  The 
officer  was  well  known  for  the  leniency  of  his  views 
towards  the  native,  and  a  certain  amount  of  appre- 
hension was  caused  in  the  province  Ic^t  he  should 
deal  too  lightly  with  the  offence.  But  even  he, 
lenient  and  humane  as  he  undoubtedly  was,  after 
hearing  the  evidence,  gave  his  judgment  in  accord- 
ance with  the  unwritten  law  of  centuries.  "  Take 
him  away  and  let  him  be  shot  at  daybreak  ;  but  let 
him  dig  his  grave  first,  or  otherwise  we  may  have 
trouble  with  hyenas." 

It  is  a  ghastly  code,  and  one  which,  it  is  almost 
needless  to  say,  will  be  gradually  removed  ;  but  it  is 
necessary  to  move  slowly  if  we  arc  to  retain  the  con- 
fidence of  the  people  with  whom  we  have  to  deal, 
and  that  is,  after  all,  the  thing  which  is  of  the  greatest 


108        FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

"^  importance.  During  the  whole  time  that  I  was  in  the 
Sudan  I  never  came  across  a  case  of  wilful  cruelty  on 
the  part  of  an  EngUshman  towards  a  native ;  as  a 
general  rule  they  are  on  the  best  of  terms  with  each 
other,  and  the  natives  honestly  respect  the  average 
EngHshman. 

The  country  is  fortunate  in  its  choice  of  officials, 
and  this  is  an  important  point,  for  one  man  who  is 
not  fitted  for  his  post  is  liable  to  do  more  harm  in 
three  months  than  can  be  undone  in  a  year.  Occa- 
sionally one  comes  across  an  Englishman  who  is  given 
to  excessive  drinking,  but  the  Sirdar  is  very  strict  on 
this  point,  and  it  is  an  understood  thing  now  that  if 
a  Government  employe  cannot  keep  sober  he  has  to 
go.  The  natives  know  this,  and  the  moral  effect  is 
excellent.  The  Sudanese  as  a  race  are  sober  enough 
themselves,  and  look  with  the  greatest  contempt  on 
those  who  cannot  control  their  appetite  in  this  direc- 
tion, though  some  of  them  it  is  true  have  developed 
a  taste  for  strong  liquors,  thanks  to  the  Europeans 

V.  who  have  brought  the  purchase  of  spirits  within  their 
/  reach. 

j  On  one  occasion  I  left  Omdurman  on  the  first  day 
of  a  native  feast.  It  was  hard  for  my  crew,  but  it 
could  not  be  avoided.  All  went  well  by  day,  but  at 
night  I  fancied  that  the  behaviour  of  some  of  the  men 
was  rather  strange ;  however,  there  was  nothing 
serious,  so  I  turned  in  as  usual,  after  a  final  look 
round  at  about  eleven  o'clock.  I  had  just  got  to 
bed  when  I  found  that  the  speed  of  the  boat  was 
becoming  slower  and  slower,  until  at  last  we  nearly 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  109 

stopped.  Knowing  that  we  were  in  good  water,  I 
could  not  understand  it  at  all,  and  eventually  went 
below.    I  found  one  fireman  on  duty  instead  of  two ; 

t,t  least  he  was  at  his  post,  though  it  can  scarcely  be 
aid  that  he  was  on  duty ;  he  sat  on  a  log  of  wood 
some  distance  from  the  stokehold,  and  sang  a  song  of 
the  deepest  melancholy.  The  pathos  of  it,  indeed, 
^appeared  to  overcome  him  at  times,  for  he  would  stop 
/for  a  moment  before  resuming  with  quite  a  cheerful 
jerk  as  though  determined  to  be  happy  at  all  costs. 
I  shook  him,  and  pounded  him,  but  all  to  no  effect — 
he  was  gloriously  and  hopelessly  drunk.  A  hurried 
investigation  revealed  the  rest  of  the  stokehold  crew 
in  much  the  same  condition,  lying  in  various  atti- 
tudes about  the  deck,  so  I  stoked  a  little  myself  in 
order  to  prevent  the  boat  from  stopping  altogether, 
and  then  called  the  sailors  below. 

When  we  were  fairly  under  way  again  I  searched 
the  ship  for  the  liquor  which  I  knew  would  be  stowed 
away  in  one  of  the  holds,  and  sure  enough  I  dis- 
covered it  at  last.  It  was  liquor  certainly,  but  how 
any  human  being  could  manage  to  consume  it  and 
live,  is  more  than  I  can  say,  for  to  me  it  seemed  to  be 
the  very  rankest  of  all  rank  turpentines.  I  treated 
the  drunken  stokers  to  a  liberal  dose  of  Nile  water, 
buckets  of  it,  and  stopped  the  boat  for  the  night. 
The  men  were  too  drunk  to  understand  anything 
properly,  and  I  left  them  obhvious  of  the  fact  that 
I  had  discovered  their  supply  of  poison.  Great  was 
the  lamentation  later  in  the  night,  when,  with  throats 
parched  and  burning,  they  sought  the  secret  hoard 


no        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE  SUDAN 

in  the  hold  and  found  that  it  had  disappeared.    Next 

morning  I  thought  that  the  natural  pain  which  the 

men  were  suffering  was  almost  sufficient  punishment, 

so  I  refrained  from  fining  them,  and  contented  my- 

/  self  with  doubhng  their  duty  for  three  days.     That 

/  was  the  only  case  of  drunkenness  among  my  crew, 

(   which  I  had  to  deal  with  during  the  whole  of  my  time 

\in  the  Sudan. 

K  This  has  been  rather  a  digression  from  the  subject 

!of  crime  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  Province  ;   but  it  will 

be   understood   that   the   severity   with   which   the 

natives  have  to  be  treated  until  they  can  be  brought 

to   realise   that   mercy   does   not   necessarily   mean 

weakness,  could  never  be  administered  with  safety, 

unless  the  officials  chosen  for  the  task  were  men  of 

undoubted  sobriety  and  self-restraint. 

The  residents  of  the  Northern  Sudan  regard  the 
dwellers  of  the  south  as  an  entirely  inferior  race,  as 
slaves  in  fact,  just  in  the  same  way  as  the  Egyptian 
regards  the  Sudanese  as  a  race  of  slaves.  There  is 
some  justification  for  the  former  belief ;  there  is,  in 
my  mind,  absolutely  none  for  the  latter.  For  taking 
them  right  through,  and  putting  education  entirely 
apart  for  the  moment,  the  Sudanie  is  decidedly  more 
capable,  and  has  a  greater  supply  of  brains  than  the 
Egyptian.  With  education  the  Sudanese  will  develop 
— they  are  already  developing — into  a  smart  and 
thoroughly  capable  race,  and,  with  the  average  man, 
it  is  noticeable  that  the  Sudanie  is  far  more  eager  to 
L  assimilate  knowledge  than  the  Egyptian.  It  is  true 
that  among  the  former  there  is  no  educated  class  at 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  111 

/"present ;  there  is  no  aristocracy  as  there  is  in  Egypt, 
[but  among  the  lower  orders  I  should  say  that  the 
^udanese  are  the  superior  race. 

\  /  There  is  nothing  that  annoys  a  native  of  the  Sudan 
more  than  to  be  called  a  woman ;  I  had  occasion 
once  to  send  the  men  ashore  to  cut  wood  in  a  very 
rough  part  of  forest  land  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  where 
every  tree  was  full  of  thorns.  Most  of  the  men  at- 
tacked the  job  with  their  usual  spirit ;  the  work  had 
got  to  be  done,  therefore  it  was  no  use  delaying  it. 
One  man,  however,  would  not  work ;  he  said  the 
thorns  cut  his  hands  ;  he  was  sick  ;  he  had  fever ; 
and  he  made  every  other  excuse  for  shirking  that  he 
could  invent.  Eventually,  on  finding  him  slacking 
for  the  fiftieth  time,  I  called  him  and  the  head-man  up 
to  me,  and  asked  the  latter  if  he  did  not  think  that  the 
other  was  a  woman  in  disguise.  He  caught  the  idea 
immediately,  and  said  that  he  thought  he  must  be, 
and  it  was  therefore  quite  unfair  to  expect  him  to 
work  like  the  men.  After  considering  what  should  be 
done  with  him  he  was  told  to  go  back  to  the  boat, 
bathe  his  hands  and  lie  down  in  the  shade.  It  was 
a  somewhat  difficult  matter  to  persuade  him  to  leave 
the  party  then,  but  he  was  forced  to  do  so  ;  however, 
when  I  went  out  an  hour  later  he  was  one  of  the  most 
energetic  of  the  workers  in  the  forest,  and  I  never 
caught  him  slacking  again  during  the  months  that  he 

\  was  in  my  employment. 

I  saw  a  most  interesting  sight  while  in  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal — an  elephant  being  stalked  and  killed  by 
another  man.     It  was  noon;    we  had  just  emerged 


112        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

from  the  swampy  regions  to  open  ground,  and  we 
spotted  three  fine  elephants  on  the  west  bank.  It 
was  decided  that  an  officer  who  was  on  board,  a 
Captain  Rawson,  who  had  been  many  months  in 
the  interior  without  having  been  fortunate  enough  to 
come  across  any  of  these  animals,  should  have  the 
chance  now.  The  beasts  were  slowly  moving  away 
from  the  river,  and  had  not,  I  believe,  been  frightened 
by  the  approach  of  the  boat.  Captain  Rawson  went 
on  shore,  armed  with  a  double-barrelled  "400  Ex- 
press, and  from  the  bridge  of  the  boat  I  was  able  to 
see  everything  that  happened.  There  was  fortu- 
nately sufficient  breeze  blowing  from  a  settled  direc- 
tion to  enable  him  to  keep  to  the  lee-side  of  the 
beasts  without  fear  of  being  winded ;  but  it  was 
hard  going,  and  it  was  some  time  before  he  could  get 
near  to  them,  as  they  were  slowly  but  steadily  pro- 
ceeding inland.  Eventually,  when  he  got  to  within 
about  sixty  or  eighty  yards,  the  hindmost  of  the 
three  suddenly  waved  its  trunk  in  the  air;  satis- 
fied itself  that  there  was  something  unhealthy  in  the 
district,  and  perceptibly  increased  its  pace.  We, 
from  the  bridge,  were  uncertain  whether  they  were 
visible  to  Captain  Rawson  from  where  he  stood,  and 
we  were  beginning  to  fear  that  he  would  lose  them, 
when  suddenly  our  doubts  were  set  at  rest  by  one  of 
them  dashing  forward  at  a  pace  that  made  it  suffi- 
ciently evident  that  there  was  a  shot  lodged  in  its 
body.  It  blundered  on,  apparently  not  badly 
wounded  to  judge  by  the  pace  it  made ;  but  it  did 
not  last ;   one  moment  it  was  covering  the  ground  at 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  113 

express  speed,  the  next  it  had  sunk  to  the  ground, 
dying.  I  hastened  ashore  with  the  men,  and  by  the 
time  we  came  to  where  the  animal  lay  it  was  stone 
dead.  Only  the  one  shot  had  been  fired,  yet  the 
beast  had  managed  to  travel  sixty-three  yards  with 
a  "400  bullet  through  the  top  of  its  heart.  We 
measured  the  distance  from  the  spot  where  the 
altered  spoor  marked  the  beginning  of  its  last  rush. 
It  was  a  huge  bull  elephant,  but  the  tusks  were  dis- 
appointing, they  were  scarcely  larger  than  cow  ivory. 
It  was  the  first  and  only  time  that  I  saw  another  man 
shoot  an  elephant,  and  the  danger  was  then  ever  so 
much  more  apparent  than  it  is  when,  full  of  excite- 
ment, you  are  conducting  the  sport  yourself. 

There  have  been  some  very  fine  specimens  of  the 
eland  shot  in  the  interior  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal 
Province,  perhaps  the  finest  being  that  shot  by  the 
late  Captain  Haymes,  r.a.m.c,  which  he  left  in  his 
will  to  the  Turf  Club,  Cairo.  Sitatunga  also  inhabit 
the  swamps  ;  but  they  are  rare,  and  very  few  of  them 
have  been  shot.  They  live  entirely  in  the  most 
marshy  districts,  and  they  are  consequently  very 
difficult  to  see.  The  first  one  that  was  shot  in  the 
Bahr-el-Ghazal  was,  as  usually  happens,  killed  by  a 
man  who  cared  little  or  nothing  for  sport.  He  was 
out  one  morning  with  his  rifle  when  a  sitatunga 
crossed  his  path,  and  then  stood  waiting  patiently 
to  be  shot  at.  It  is  an  extraordinary  thing,  the  way 
that  so  often  the  best  heads  fall  to  the  lot  of  men 
who  do  not  really  care  twopence  for  them. 

There  are  a   few  koodoo  near  Kordofan,  and  it 


114        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN. 

was  everyone's  ambition  to  get  one  when  they 
were  sent  into  the  district.  One  Thursday  night, 
the  eve  of  the  weekly  holiday,  the  men  in  the 
mess  were  as  usual  planning  the  sport  for  the 
following  day,  and  the  subject  of  the  ever-elusive 
koodoo  cropped  up  in  its  turn.  Everybody  was  in- 
terested except  one  man,  whose  only  sport  consisted  in 
pottering  round  the  camp  with  a  shot-gun  after 
pigeon.  The  conversation  at  last  quite  overcame 
him  ;  he  was  being  bored  to  death,  so  he  rose  and  said, 
with  no  little  sarcasm,  that  he  would  go  to  bed,  "  so 
as  to  be  out  early  with  the  rifle."  Nobody  took  much 
notice,  and  he  added,  as  a  parting  shot,  "  Koodoo, 
anyone  can  shoot  a  koodoo  ;  Fll  shoot  one  to-morrow 
before  breakfast."'  He  did.  He  was  very  late  getting 
up  ;  all  the  other  men  were  long  away  when  his 
servant  came  and  said  that  a  native  had  come  in  with 
the  news  that  there  was  one  of  these  animals  within 
half  a  mile  of  camp.  Mindful  of  his  boast,  and  ex- 
cited at  last,  he  went  out ;  got  an  easy  shot,  and  killed 
it  at  short  range.  An  hour  later  his  companions 
returned  and  found  him  lounging  at  the  breakfast- 
table,  and  it  was  some  time  before  he  drawled  out  his 
news  with  an  affectation  of  indifference  which  he  must 
have  been  far  from  feehng. 

The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  presents  many  difficulties  of 
navigation.  The  first  part  of  the  river,  after  leaving 
the  White  Nile,  is,  as  I  have  said,  comparatively 
broad,  but  there  is  always  the  danger  of  it  being 
choked  with  floating  vegetation.  It  is  not  hke  the 
Bahr-el-Gebel,  where  a  couple  of  seasons'  work  would 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  116 

put  everything  in  order  ;   for  during  the  greater  part 

of  the  year  there  is  not  sufficient  water  to  carry  the 

vegetation  down  on  its  current.     The  river,  too,  is 

constantly   turning   and   twisting,   and   this   makes 

matters   worse,   as   under   these   circumstances   the 

stufi  naturally  accumulates  more  quickly.     Further 

up,  the  difficulty  lies  in  sheer  lack  of  water  ;  it  would 

never  be  possible  to  get  as  far  as  Meshr-el-Rek  during 

the  months  of  low  Nile  unless  all  the  water  from  the 

surrounding  swamps  could  be  diverted  into  a  main 

channel.    This  would  mean  tremendous  work,  which 

would   not  be  justified   by  the  results   obtainable, 

since  it  is  possible  to  accumulate  sufficient  stores 

during  the  months  of  flood  to  last  the  inhabitants  for 

the  rest  of  the  year.     Here,  of  course,  as  in  other 

;  Darts  of  the  Sudan,  we  are  never  entirely  without 

(the  danger  of  a  sudden  rising  of  the  natives,  though 

I  each  succeeding  year  renders  the  probability  of  such 

I  an  event  more  remote. 

It  was  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  that  Mr.  Scott- 
Barbour  met  his  death,  treacherously  murdered  by 
a  presumably  friendly  tribe.  He  had  camped  near 
a  native  village,  and  the  natives  came  during  the  day 
to  pay  him  the  customary  visit.  While  stooping  down 
to  pour  out  some  milk  for  his  guests  he  was  stabbed 
in  the  back,  and  killed  instantaneously.  The  tribe 
then  turned  their  attention  to  his  following,  all  of 
whom,  with  the  exception  of  one  man,  perished. 
The  object  of  their  slaughter  was  plunder,  but, 
though  successful  at  the  time,  the  tribe  paid  heavily 
for  it  eventually,  when  the  avenging  forces  of  the 


116        FIVE   YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

Government  marched  through  their  territory,  shoot- 
ing at  sight,  and  burning  every  village  as  they  passed. 
Thus  they  paid  the  price  of  a  "  white  man  slain/' 
and  peace  reigned  for  some  years,  till  Captain 
Haymes,  one  of  the  most  popular  officers  in  the 
Egyptian  army,  was  killed  in  the  same  province.  But 
in  his  case  the  first  thrust  was  not  immediately 
fatal,  and  he  at  least  had  the  satisfaction  of  dying 
with  his  face  to  the  treacherous  brutes  who  attacked 
him ;  he  emptied  the  five  chambers  of  his  revolver 
before  he  died,  and  each  shot  claimed  its  man. 

Curiously  enough,  both  these  officers  made  their 
last  trip  to  the  south  on  my  boat.  In  the  case  of  the 
former,  it  was  an  ill-fated  journey  from  the  start, 
for  we  had  not  been  two  days  out  of  Omdurman  when 
his  boy,  a  nice  bright  lad,  who  had  been  with  him  for 
four  years,  fell  overboard,  and  was  drowned.  He 
was  seen  to  fall,  the  waters  closed  over  his  head, 
and  he  was  seen  no  more  ;  he  never  rose  to  the  sur- 
face, and  though  we  cruised  about  for  an  hour 
afterwards,  we  could  find  no  trace  of  him. 

It  is  a  curious  thing,  the  way  in  which  the  Nile 
holds  its  victims.  Time  and  time  again  I  have  seen 
men  fall  in,  never  to  return ;  they  apparently  go  to 
the  bottom  and  stay  there  ;    sometimes  they  appear 

^  weeks  later,  but  at  the  time  they  are  lost  absolutely. 

)  Occasionally,  of  course,  a  crocodile  gets  hold  of 
them  as  they  enter  the  water,  but  even  where  none  of 
these  animals  are  about  the  effect  is  the  same  ;  they 
fall  like  stones,  and  remain  under  water.    The  Nile 

Vclaims  a  big  yearly  tribute  from  the  people  of  the 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  117 

,  Sudan,  and  I  suppose  it  is  due  to  their  inherent 
fatahsm  that  they  appear  to  care  so  little.  Im- 
mediately after  the  death  of  one  of  their  number 
they  are  more  careful ;  but  the  next  day  they  have 
forgotten  it,  or  are  careless  of  the  danger  of  sharing 

)  a  like  fate.  The  manner  in  which  most  of  the  accidents 
occur  is  this.  A  barge  is  towed  alongside  a  steamer, 
and  is  usually  full  of  natives.  They  go  to  the  after- 
end  to  draw  water  from  the  river,  and  to  do  so  they 
squat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  barge.  Something 
jerks  the  bucket,  or  the  barge  lurches  against  the 
steamer,  or  they  lose  their  balance  from  some  similar 
cause,  and  over  they  go.  Nothing  will  stop  them ; 
they  have  done  it  before,  they  will  do  it  again  ;   it  is 

\the  recognised  way  of  drawing  water. 

The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  literally  teems  with  fish,  some 
of  which  are  very  good  eating.  In  the  River  Jur, 
which  I  have  alluded  to  above,  the  greatest  difficulties 
of  navigation  are  experienced,  as  the  river  is  so 
narrow  that  there  is  scarcely  room  for  the  boat  to 
move  ;  and  progress  is  made  by  the  winch  for  several 
miles.  An  anchor  is  thrown  out,  and  the  boat  is 
pulled  up  to  it  on  the  winch,  and  so  on.  At  the 
corners,  the  entire  crew  turn  out  and  pull  her  round 
inch  by  inch.  The  fish  get  rather  a  bad  time  of  it 
at  these  points ;  they  do  not  know  where  to  go.  It 
usually  ends  with  their  leaping  blindly  out  of  the 
water  to  escape  being  crushed  between  the  side  of 
the  boat  and  tlie  bank,  but  as  a  rule  it  is  simply  a 
case  of  "  out  of  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire,"  for 
they  frequently  fall  on  the  lower  deck  of  the  steamer. 


118        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

and  make  their  appearance  a  little  later  on  at  the 
dinner-table.  The  river  also  abounds  in  water- 
leeches,  and,  not  unnaturally,  the  men  rather  object 
to  going  overboard  here  if  they  can  avoid  it,  as  they 
are  certain  to  be  attacked  if  they  do.  One  got  firmly 
attached  to  my  cloth  putty  one  day,  when  I  had  been 
forced  to  wade  back  to  the  boat  from  the  shore. 
I  came  upon  it  unexpectedly ;  I  thought  it  was  a 
leaf,  and  tried  to  brush  it  off.  It  haunted  me  for 
weeks. 

?here  was  also  a  lively  Httle  eel-shaped  specimen, 
rhich,  if  the  men  are  to  be  believed,  treated  them  to 
/electric  shocks  as  they  swum  past  them.  I  never 
experienced  the  shock  myself,  and  I  never  knew 
whether  to  believe  the  tale  or  not,  for  the  Sudanese 
are  very  fluent  romancers  at  times. 

I  remember  once,  when  I  was  new  to  the  country 
and  its  ways,  a  man  came  to  me  at  a  wooding  station, 
to  tell  me  that  he  had  been  bitten  by  a  scorpion  and 
to  ask  for  medicine.  I  had  been  told  that  the  treat- 
ment on  these  occasions  was  to  cut  the  place  of  the 
sting,  rub  in  ammonia,  and  then  drink  half  a  tumbler 
of  neat  whisky.  I  cut  the  wound  very  gingerly — I 
was  new  to  surgery  in  those  days — put  on  the  am- 
monia with  a  light  hand,  knowing  from  personal 
experience  how  it  stung  in  a  cut,  and  administered 
the  whisky  lavishly.  Ten  minutes  later  another  man 
appeared,  moaning  heavily,  and  holding  his  finger. 
He  also  had  been  stung,  and  I  went  through  the  same 
performance  with  him.  Scarcely  had  he  gone  when 
another  appeared.     "An  awful  place  this  for  scor- 


THE   BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  119 

/-pions,"  I  thought,  but  went  through  the  same  for- 
1  mula.  Then  I  sat  down,  and  witnessed  an  interesting 
I  and  instructive  little  bit  of  by-play,  through  the 
reflection  in  the  mirror  of  my  cabin.  Two  men  were 
quarrelhng.  I  did  not  understand  sufficient  Arabic 
to  know  what  the  trouble  was,  but  at  length  one  of 
them  broke  away  from  the  other,  and  changing  his 
expression  with  a  quickness  that  would  have  made 
his  fortune  on  the  stage,  rounded  the  corner  to  where 
I  was  sitting.  He  moaned  in  the  approved  style 
and  nursed  his  hand.  He  had  been  stung  on  the 
third  finger.  I  fetched  the  lance,  and  cut  the  wound  ; 
I  went  rather  deep  as  he  appeared  to  be  in  so  much 
pain,  then  I  appUed  the  ammonia,  and  rubbed  it  in 
well,  and,  this  done,  spoke  one  of  my  words  of  Arabic, 
"  khalas,"  which,  being  interpreted,  means  "  fin- 
ished." He  did  not  appear  to  be  satisfied,  so  I  called 
my  boy,  who  could  understand  my  very  pigeon 
Arabic,  to  explain  that  I  feared  the  smell  of  the 
whisky  was  attracting  the  scorpions,  and  that  there 
would  be  no  further  free  drinks  administered  that 
night !  There  was  a  roar  of  laughter  from  behind 
the  corner,  where,  it  appeared,  the  entire  crew  had 
'  ^  assembled  to  see  what  was  happening. 

We  had  no  further  trouble  with  scorpions  that 
night. 

Of  all  the  places  that  I  would  visit  in  the  White 
Nile  districts  of  the  southern  Sudan,  were  I  to  return 
to  the  country,  I  would  choose  the  Bahr-el-Uhazal. 
To  me  it  represents  Africa  more  fully  than  any  other 
spot  in  those  regions.     The  interior  is  rich  in  both 


120        FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

rubber  and  ivory ;  fruit  grows  well,  and  some  of 
the  finest  bananas  that  I  have  ever  seen  were  grown 
at  Wau,  the  capital  of  the  province.  Unfortunately, 
many  of  the  rubber  trees  were  almost  ruined  by 
having  been  badly  tapped.  I  believe  there  is  an 
expert  in  charge  of  the  plantations  now,  but  in  any 
case,  no  very  great  revenue  can  accrue  from  the 
cultivation  of  rubber,  or  any  other  tree,  until  there  is 
a  more  assured  mode  of  transport  to  the  north  than 
there  is  at  present.  But  things  are  improving  daily ; 
it  is  only  within  the  past  four  years  that  boats  have 
been  able  to  reach  Wau  at  all.  Formerly,  as  I  have 
said,  all  transport  was  landed  at  Meshr-el-Rek,  and 
carried  across  country  to  the  capital  by  native 
carriers.  This  province  has  been  a  good  deal  before 
the  public  at  different  times  by  reason  of  its  troubles 
with  the  Congo  State  which  adjoins  it.  Had  the 
letter  of  the  agreement  originally  made  between 
Britain  and  Belgium  been  adhered  to,  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal  should  have  been  included  as  Free  State 
territories,  and  one  or  two  enterprising  Belgian 
officers  attempted  to  take  the  matter  of  boundaries 
in  their  own  hands  while  I  was  in  the  Sudan.  In  each 
case,  however,  their  Government  wisely  decided  that 
the  thing  was  not  worth  a  fight,  and  the  troops  were 
ordered  to  withdraw.  The  most  interesting  occur- 
rences, however,  in  connection  with  these  incidents, 
took  place  on  the  White  Nile,  and  will  be  referred 
to  later  on. 

The  natives  of  this  province  are  morally  the  exact 
antithesis  of  the  natives  of  the  Sobat  River.     They 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  121 

are  absolutely  without  morals,  as  far  as  the  general 
populace  are  concerned ;  they  are  also  further 
advanced  in  some  of  the  tenets  of  civilisation,  and 
wear  loin  cloths,  usually  of  skins  or  crudely  treated 
leather.  They  are  possessed  with  a  remarkable  idea 
of  form,  and  would,  I  should  say,  make  splendid 
workmen  at  the  finer  trades  if  they  were  properly 
trained.  Even  under  present  circumstances  their 
work  in  ivory  is  wonderful.  I  bought  some  carved 
ivory  rings  from  the  natives  there,  which  are  so 
beautifully  made  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
realise  that  they  could  have  been  turned  out  by 
untrained  workmen,  who  had  no  tools  except  a  spear, 
and,  perhaps,  a  clumsy  hunting-knife.  They  are  as 
round  as  though  they  had  been  turned  out  in  a  lathe, 
and  are  decorated  with  circular  designs  of  perfect 
symmetry  and  regularity ;  indeed,  they  are  so  well 
finished  that  people  usually  passed  over  them  as 
being  articles  brought  out  from  England,  or  at 
least  made  in  Egypt  with  the  aid  of  proper 
machinery. 

Further  in  the  interior  there  are  tribes  which  still 
continue  in  the  darkness  and  horror  of  cannibalism, 
though,  as  far  as  can  be  gathered,  it  is  only  an 
occasional  luxury,  and  not  one  that  is  regularly 
indulged  in.  It  was  in  the  country  of  the  cannibals 
that  Armstrong  Bey  lost  his  life  while  elephant 
shooting.  An  expedition  with  Armstrong  in  com- 
mand had  been  sent  into  tlieir  country,  but  just  as 
they  entered  the  scene  of  the  projected  operations 
some  elephants  of  the  district  attracted  him,  and  he 


122        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

went  out  after  them.  Exactly  how  the  tragedy- 
happened  will  never  quite  be  known  ;  he  apparently 
fired  at  and  wounded  a  big  tusker  ;  the  next  moment 
he  was  picked  up  and  thrown  yards  into  the  air,  and 
he  broke  his  neck  in  the  fall.  The  command  of  the 
little  party  then  devolved  on  Colour-Sergeant  Bord- 
man,  who  acquitted  himself  admirably,  and  was 
awarded  the  medal  for  "Distinguished  Service  in  the 
Field."  He  did  not,  however,  live  very  long  to  enjoy 
his  distinction ;  he  came  down  to  Khartoum,  and 
then  went  on  leave  and  got  married,  but  the  venom 
of  the  climate  had  got  thoroughly  into  his  blood,  and 
though  he  was  sufiering  from  no  actual  disease,  he 
died  a  few  months  later. 

The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  has  claimed  a  large  number 
/of  English  Hves  since  the  recapture  of  the  Sudan. 
Some  men  were  killed  in  the  field  as  I  have  related, 
some  died  of  fever ;  others  paid  the  debt  of  the  pioneer 
when  they  had  left  the  district  and  were  apparently 
out  of  harm's  way.  Though  comparatively  few 
white  men  have  died  of  it  here,  blackwater  fever  is  the 
most  dreaded  of  the  diseases  of  the  place.  The  whole 
province  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  been  exploited 
thoroughly  as  yet,  though  each  year  a  new  corner 
is  examined  and  brought  within  the  limits  of  com- 
parative civilisation.  An  expedition  of  about  four 
or  five  years  ago  brought  to  light  a  new  breed  of  dogs, 
which  were  found  in  the  possession  of  the  Nuym 
Nuym  tribe.  These  animals  are  something  Hke  the 
ordinary  English  fox-terrier,  but  are  much  longer 
in  the  body,  and  their  ears  are  differently  shaped. 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  123 

fFhe  officers  of  the  expedition  tell  awful  tales  of  how 
iwhen  they  arrived  they  found  some  of  these  poor 
'beasts — still  alive — on  the  fire,  being  slowly  cooked 
(as  a  dainty  for  the  dinner-table  ;  and  I  beheve  it  is 
'really  true  that  they  are  considered  cuHnary  luxuries. 

During  the  time  of  the  French  Occupation  of  the 
Bahr-el-Ghazal,  the  officers  were  in  the  habit  of 
marrying  native  women  according  to  local  law.  The 
customs  of  the  Enghsh,  therefore,  were  regarded 
with  some  disapprobation  at  first,  though  the  in- 
habitants have  long  ceased  to  look  upon  the  more 
exclusive  habits  of  the  new  occupants  in  the  light 
of  an  affront  to  their  women,  as  they  were  originally 
incHned  to  do. 

From  an  Englishman's  point  of  view,  one  of  the 
chief  disadvantages  of  this  region  of  the  Sudan  is, 
that  horses,  or  even  mules,  will  not  live  for  more  than 
a  few  months,  and  then  only  in  the  dry  season.  All 
attempts  to  keep  them  during  the  wet  months  have 
proved  futile,  the  difficulty  arising  principally  through 
the  presence  of  a  fiy,  not  unlike,  though  I  beheve 
distinct  from,  the  tsetse  fly,  which  is  the  curse  of 
so  many  regions  of  Africa. 

But,  notwithstanding  climatic  and  other  dis- 
advantages, the  lives  of  the  men  in  the  interior 
must  have  been  holidays  in  contrast  to  the  lives  of 
those  who  were  deputed  by  the  Government  to  cut 
a  way  through  the  Jur  River  to  Wau.  The  swamps 
on  either  side  make  it  impossible  to  land  except  at 
very  few  points,  and  the  mosquitoes  were  unfailing 
in  their  attentions  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time. 


124        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

This  task  primarily  devolved  upon  Lieutenant  Drury, 
R.N.,  who  subsequently  worked  at  the  sudd.  I  re- 
member that  all  the  different  stages  of  this  stream 
were  named  very  much  to  the  point.  When  first 
I  went  up  the  river  I  was  told  to  go  as  far  as  "  Godel- 
phus  Island."  This  island  proved  to  be  a  small 
block  of  dry  land  in  the  midst  of  desolate  swamps ; 
it  was  not  until  I  arrived  there  that  I  learned  the 
meaning  of  the  name.  Then  I  was  told  that  it  was 
the  point  where  the  cutting  expedition  had  stuck 
for  the  longest  period  of  the  time,  and  it  had  at  last 
been  christened  "  God  help  us  "  by  the  despairing 
captain ;  time  had  brought  about  the  corruption  of 
the  phrase,  and  the  name  "  Godelphus  "  is  official 
now. 

Food,  which  was  formerly  plentiful  and  exceed- 
ingly cheap  at  all  the  villages  on  the  main  river,  is 
now  almost  impossible  to  obtain  ;  sheep  at  one  time 
cost  from  one  to  two  shillings  each,  now  it  is  difficult 
to  buy  them  at  all.  However,  where  it  is  possible  to 
land,  there  is  generally  the  certainty  of  game  of  sorts  ; 
if  nothing  larger  presents  itself  there  is  always  guinea- 
fowl  to  fill  the  pot  when  the  time  comes  for  dinner. 
I  think  that  I  have  tasted  guinea-fowl  cooked  in  every 
imaginable  form,  and  often,  even  when  I  was  hungry, 
I  have  been  forced  to  refuse  it ;  if  one  has  to  take 
it  regularly  without  change  for  any  length  of  time 
it  becomes  as  much  to  be  dreaded  as  mixed  tinned 
rations,  and  anyone  who  has  lived  out  of  the  reach 
of  fresh  meat  will  know  what  that  means. 

Unlike  the  natives  of  the  Sudan  generally,   the 


THE    BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  125 

inhabitants  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  will  eat  any- 
thing. At  the  time  of  one  of  the  small  expeditions 
we  were  taking  camels  up  ;  one  died  and  was  thrown 
overboard.  When  we  returned  a  couple  of  days 
later  we  found  that  it  had  been  carefully  hauled 
ashore  as  an  edible  by  the  natives,  and  its  bones 
lay  bare  on  the  bank  of  the  river.  The  contempt 
of  my  crew  for  this  behaviour  was  worth  anything 
to  see.  "  Of  course,  what  could  be  expected  from 
people  such  as  these,  with  no  learning,"  said  one  of 
my  stokers,  who,  by  the  way,  was  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  the  missing  link  of  Darwin's  imagination 
than  anything  else  that  I  have  come  across. 

Oh !  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  with  its  swamps  and 
fevers,  its  mosquitoes  and  its  flies !  Everyone 
curses  it,  and  everyone  has  a  tender  recollection 
for  it  when  they  have  left  it.  Its  great  plains  spotted 
with  game,  its  forests,  and  even  its  swamps  attract 
one  at  the  last.  It  is  a  primitive  land  appealing  to  all 
that  is  left  of  our  primitive  natures. 

Its  waters  are  full  of  hippopotami,  which  emerge 
like  giant  swine  at  night  to  feast  on  the  fresh,  green 
grass  of  the  pastures  near  the  river.  I  owe  my  first 
hippopotamus  to  this  river.  I  was  strolHng  about  the 
top  deck  in  my  pyjamas  one  morning  at  dawn,  when 
we  suddenly  rounded  a  corner  and  came  upon  one 
which  had  been  feeding  some  five  hundred  yards 
inland.  He  took  a  great  deal  of  kiUing,  poor  beast, 
but  I  got  him  eventually.  His  teeth  were  good, 
and  like  my  first  elephant,  which  proved  to  be  the 
largest  that  I  got  during  my  stay  in  the  country, 


126        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

this  proved  to  be  my  best  and  largest  hippopotamus. 
I  was  rather  pressed  for  time  on  this  trip,  so  we  hauled 
him  bodily  on  board  with  the  aid  of  the  steam 
winch.  Another  scene  of  carnage,  somewhat  similar 
to  that  which  attended  the  killing  of  my  elephant, 
followed ;  but  I  insisted  on  the  hide,  which  is  much 
sought  after  for  the  making  of  whips  and  sticks, 
being  all  handed  over  to  me.  Then  when  the  ex- 
citement had  cooled,  I  distributed  the  major  portion 
of  it  among  the  crew,  according  to  rank.  The  rest 
I  kept,  in  order  to  have  it  treated  for  my  own  use. 
It  has  one  great  disadvantage  even  when  properly 
cured  and  made  into  sticks  ;  it  seems  to  be  almost 
impossible  to  entirely  ehminate  the  smell  from  it. 
It  may  appear  to  be  all  right,  but  as  soon  as  the 
weather  becomes  damp,  its  presence  will  make 
itself  distinctly  evident  to  the  olfactory  nerves.  It 
is  curious,  however,  that  I  almost  entirely  lost  the 
use  of  these  nerves  during  the  time  that  I  was  in 
the  Sudan,  and  only  regained  it  after  a  couple 
of  months'  residence  in  England.  Even  now  when 
I  return  to  a  tropical  cHmate  I  invariably  notice  that 
this  sense  weakens  with  every  month  that  passes  ; 
always  to  return  with  the  colder  climate  of  the  west. 
I  look  upon  it  as  a  blessing  in  disguise  ;  for  judging 
from  the  occasional  odours  which  obtrude  them- 
selves upon  me  as  it  is,  I  should  be  very  sorry  to 
have  a  finer  sense  to  meet  them  with.  Egypt  is, 
of  course,  much  worse  in  this  respect  than  the  Sudan ; 
indeed,  the  smell  of  the  sudd  on  a  dull  and  clammy 
day  is  the  only  one  in  connection  with  the  latter 


THE   BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  127 

country   which    occurs    to   me   objectionably   as   I 
write. 

But  I  must  leave  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  to  the  drowsy 
heat  which  marks  its  day,  and  to  the  beasts 
of  prey  which  wake  the  stillnesses  of  its  nights, 
and  proceed  to  the  most  horrible  place  in  the  Sudan, 
the  great  region  of  the  sudd. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    SUDD 

THE  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  after  running  through  Lake 
No,  mixes  its  waters  with  Bahr-el-Gebel  as  it 
hurries  on  its  way  from  the  great  lakes  of  Uganda  to 
the  sea.  Its  junction  with  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  marks 
the  end  of  its  journey  through  the  miles  of  swamp 
which  are  known  by  the  name  of  "  sudd."  The  river 
is  deep  and  still,  and  its  velocity  at  certain  parts  is 
great.  The  first  time  that  I  entered  the  sudd  region 
I  thought  that  it  was,  apart  from  the  smell,  in  all 
ways  beautiful. 

One  enters  an  endless  avenue  of  papyrus,  tall  and 
slender  and  of  a  most  perfect  green  ;  it  is  fascinating 
at  first,  but  when  once  the  sameness  of  its  unchanging 
appearance  begins  to  be  felt,  it  is  distasteful  ever 
afterwards.  The  stalk  of  the  growth  is  absolutely 
bare  and  smooth  ;  the  head  is  crowned  with  a  flower 
which  resembles  an  onion  flower  gone  to  seed,  green, 
but  at  seasons  tipped  faintly  with  gold. 

For  three  days  and  for  three  nights  one  passes 
through  this  description  of  scenery,  always  with  the 
pecuUar  sickly  smell  of  decaying  vegetation  in  one's 
nostrils.  It  is  the  throne  of  desolation,  even  the 
animals  avoid  it.    A  cloak  of  silence  falls  upon  the 

128 


THE    SUDD  129 

place  as  you  enter  it,  a  silence  which  is  broken  only 
by  the  swish  of  the  disturbed  waters  as  they  rush  from 
the  wheel  of  the  steamer  against  the  walls  of  papyrus, 
past  which  you  are  labouring.  The  hidden  life  which 
fills  the  air  with  sound  in  other  districts  of  the  Sudan 
is  not  to  be  found  here ;  there  are  mosquitoes,  it  is 
true — and  as  emissaries  of  his  Satanic  Majesty  it  is  a 
fitting  abode  for  them — but  there  is  scarcely  any 
other  life.  Very  occasionally  the  scared  face  of  a 
hippopotamus,  seemingly  thoroughly  ashamed  of  its 
surroundings  and  full  of  questionings  as  to  how  it 
got  there,  appears  above  the  water  ;  once  I  saw  three 
elephants  in  the  district. 

I  think  of  that  time  with  shame.  There  was 
another  man  on  board  with  me,  and  it  was  the  first 
time  that  we  had  seen  any  of  these  animals  in  their 
native  element.  We  therefore  got  our  rifles,  and, 
forgetting  that  it  would  be  practically  impossible  to 
retrieve  the  tusks  even  if  we  killed,  we  fired.  A  shot, 
I  hope  it  was  not  mine,  evidently  lodged  in  the  leg  of 
one  of  the  animals,  and  it  could  only  move  with  great 
difficulty.  At  the  time  when  we  fired  it  was  walking 
a  few  yards  behind  the  other  two,  and  after  the  shot 
it  gradually  fell  further  and  further  behind,  until  the 
others  noticed  that  there  was  something  wrong.  Both 
of  them  turned  immediately,  came  back  to  where  the 
wounded  beast  was  struggling  along,  and,  placing 
themselves  on  either  side  of  him,  supported  him  along 
out  of  the  reach  of  danger.  It  was  a  sight  which,  in 
one  way,  I  would  not  have  missed  for  anything ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  I  never  regretted  anything  so 

K 


i:^0        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

keenly  as  that  I  should  have  needed  the  lesson  which 
was  thus  given  to  me. 

I  have  probably  wounded  numerous  animals  which 
I  have  been  unable  to  secure,  since  that  day  ;  but  I 
have  never  fired  without  thinking,  and  have  never 
attempted  a  shot  if  there  was  not  a  reasonable  chance 
of  my  being  able  to  profit  by  it. 

This  sudd  region  has  cost  the  Government  thou- 
sands of  pounds.  In  the  old  days  an  accumulation 
of  the  growth  constantly  barred  the  passage  to  navi- 
gation. Here  it  is  a  very  different  thing  to  what  it  is 
on  the  river  which  I  have  just  described,  as  there  was 
no  hard  bank  to  land  on,  and  no  game  at  hand  to  shoot. 
A  boat  badly  stuck  in  the  great  sudd  ran  the  grave 
risk  of  remaining  there  until  starvation  overtook  her 
crew ;  this  difficulty  was  one  of  the  first  things  that 
occupied  the  minds  of  the  administration  upon  the 
coming  of  the  EngHsh.  The  question  was  not  only 
that  of  difficulties  of  navigation  ;  it  also  bore  directly 
upon  the  prosperity  of  Egypt,  since  much  water  was 
lost  in  the  swamps  to  the  far  south  of  the  Sudan. 
The  first  sudd-cutting  expedition  left  Omdurman, 
under  the  command  of  Peake  Bey,  very  shortly  after 
the  fall  of  Omdurman  ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  year 
1902  that  the  work  could  be  said  to  be  complete,  and 
a  clear  channel  assured  to  the  country.  Even  now  it 
must  always  remain  a  matter  of  some  uncertainty  as 
to  whether  the  channel  will  remain  open,  for  while  the 
probabihties  point  to  a  steady  and  sure  way  through 
the  miles  of  swamp,  it  is  always  possible  that  an 
accumulation   may   form  at  one  of  the  corners  of 


THE    SUDD  131 

the  river,  and  the  work  all  have  to  be  done  over 
again. 

In  one  of  his  reports,  Sir  William  Garstin  proposed 
a  drastic  measure  as  the  only  one  whereby  absolute 
safety  could  be  secured  to  the  country  in  this  respect. 
He  proposed  that  the  existing  course  of  the  Nile 
through  the  swamps  of  the  Upper  Sudan  should  be 
entirely  diverted,  and  a  new  course  excavated  for  it 
along  the  side  of  the  hard  land  which  lies  to  the  east 
of  the  swamps.  It  would  then  empty  into  the  Bahr- 
el-Zaraf,  a  river  which  is  at  present  little  used  ;  the 
point  at  which  it  first  leaves  its  parent,  the  White 
Nile,  is  entirely  lost  in  sudd,  and  it  is  therefore  a 
river  which  ends  blindly,  nowhere. 

This  new  scheme  would  cost  millions  to  carry 
through,  and  in  view  of  the  number  of  years  that 
have  passed  since  operations  in  the  sudd  district 
have  been  necessary,  it  is  perhaps  doubtful  whether 
it  will  ever  be  undertaken.  Each  year  lessens  the 
probabihty  of  a  block  in  the  river  which  has  already 
been  cleared,  unless  an  untoward  circumstance  should 
loosen  the  banks  through  which  the  water  flows  ;  in 
such  a  case  the  whole  place  would  be  blocked  in  a 
very  short  time,  as  the  current  would  naturally  lose 
much  of  its  necessary  force. 

In  Baker's  time  the  river,  though  not  actually  im- 
passable— for  he  managed  at  last  to  penetrate  it  and 
get  through  to  Uganda — was  navigable  only  under 
circumstances  of  the  greatest  difficulty ;  and  in 
numerous  places  it  was  impossible  to  move  without 
resorting  to  the  methods  of  pulling  and  cutting  which 


132        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

are  now  only  necessary  in  the  less  important  rivers 
of  the  Sudan.  There  still  remains  one  portion  of  the 
river  which  it  is  very  difficult  to  navigate  at  low 
Nile,  but  this  is  due  to  the  shallowness  of  the  water 
and  not  to  any  accumulation  of  sudd  or  other  vege- 
table matter.  At  this  point  (it  is  towards  the  southern 
end  of  the  sudd)  it  would  certainly  pay  the  Govern- 
ment to  deepen  a  permanent  channel  of  sufficient 
width  to  enable  boats  to  pass  up  and  down  without 
the  present  danger  of  sticking  high  and  dry  in  the 
shallows.  It  would  not  be  a  very  expensive  under- 
taking ;  the  ground  is,  for  the  most  part,  fairly  soft, 
and  the  strength  of  the  current  of  water  flowing  into 
it  would  probably  be  sufficient  to  keep  it  clear  in  the 
future. 

Sir  William  Garstin's  scheme  certainly  has  the 
advantage  of  assuring  a  navigable  waterway  without 
the  possibiUty  of  interruption  between  Gondokoro 
and  Khartoum,  with  the  one  exception  of  the  ford  of 
Abu  Zeit,  and,  as  he  suggested  in  his  report  on  the 
subject,  the  material  excavated  might  be  utilised 
as  the  embankment  for  a  railway,  should  it  ever  be 
thought  necessary  to  construct  one  in  these  parts. 
This  contingency  is  hardly  probable.  Africa  will 
have  to  content  herself  with  a  Cape  to  Cairo  line  of 
transport  by  combined  rail  and  steamer  for  many 
generations  to  come  ;  it  will  not  be  practicable  or 
indeed  desirable  to  cover  the  whole  distance  by  rail- 
way. With  such  a  grand  natural  waterway  as  lies 
between  Gondckoro  and  Khartoum,  the  enormous 
expenditure   wliich   the   construction   of   a   railway 


THE    SUDD  133 

would  necessitate  would  be  unjustifiable,  and  there 
is  no  prospect  of  its  being  undertaken,  at  least  in  our 
time.  It  is  true  that  branches,  running  to  different 
portions  of  the  interior  of  the  Sudan,  may  conceiv- 
ably lessen  the  distance  to  be  traversed  by  water, 
but  through  the  sudd,  for  instance,  a  railway  would 
be  an  impossibility ;  it  would  be  necessary  to  carry 
it  away  to  the  east,  joining  the  river  again  near 
Taufikier.  Africa  will  have  to  increase  the  value 
and  amount  of  her  exports  to  an  enormous  extent 
before  the  expenditure  of  extra  millions  on  a  railway, 
which  would  connect  Uganda  with  the  capital  of  the 
Sudan,  can  be  even  thought  of  seriously. 

The  cutting  of  the  sudd  was  one  of  the  most  arduous 
tasks  which  lay  before  the  English  on  their  arrival  in 
the  country.  It  was  one  which  needed  incessant  at- 
tention and  hard  work,  and  it  lay  in  a  district  which 
is  absolutely  devoid  of  attraction.  At  early  dawn  the 
Englishmen  in  charge  would  rise  to  see  that  all  was 
in  order  for  the  day's  work,  and  from  that  time 
through  the  day  they  were  constantly  busy  superin- 
tending. I  had  not  arrived  in  the  country  when  the 
expedition  under  Major  Peake  made  the  first  im- 
pression on  this  mighty  swamp  ;  but  during  the  last, 
under  Lieutenant  Drury,  r.n.,  and  Mr.  Poole,  I  had 
frequent  opportunities  of  seeing  the  men  at  work, 
and  I  never  saw  it  but  what  I  thanked  Providence 
that  it  had  not  fallen  to  my  lot  to  be  attached  to 
the  expedition. 

The  manner  in  which  the  work  was  accomplished 
was  briefly  this.    A  party  of  men  would  clamber  out 


134        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

as  best  tlicy  might  on  to  the  reekmg  swamp  ;  then, 
selecting  a  block  of  sudd,  they  would  cut  down 
through  it  with  swords  till  it  was  practically  free  from 
the  body  of  the  surrounding  swamp.  A  hawser  was 
then  passed  out  to  them,  and  this  they  would  fasten 
securely  round  the  all  but  severed  portion,  and  return 
to  the  boat.  The  ship's  end  of  the  hawser  would  in 
its  turn  be  attached  to  the  winch  on  board,  and  the 
ship  would  be  driven  astern  with  a  jerk,  thus  bringing 
the  mass  of  sudd  which  had  been  cut,  away  from  the 
field.  It  would  then  be  pushed  aside  into  the  stream, 
which  carried  it  away  till,  water-logged,  it  sunk 
somewhere  in  the  north.  This  accomplished,  the 
same  thing  would  take  place  again  and  again  till 
time  was  called  for  food.  Feeding-time  over,  the 
same  routine  would  be  carried  out  until  dark.  And 
then  began  the  mosquitoes'  parade  ! 

During  the  last  expedition,  an  anchor  and  other 
accessories  of  a  steamer  were  found  by  the  men, 
deeply  bedded  in  the  sudd.  They  had  not  been  left 
by  any  of  the  steamers  which  had  been  engaged  in 
the  sudd  since  the  battle  of  Omdurman ;  it  is  prob- 
able, to  judge  from  the  state  of  the  metal  when  it  was 
found,  that  these  rehcs  were  of  a  time  preceding  the 
rise  of  the  Mahdi,  and  are  therefore  interesting 
records  of  some  forgotten  attempt  to  clear  a  water- 
way through  these  desolate  regions. 

The  chief  station  of  the  sudd  during  the  cutting 
operations  was  a  place  called  Sanduk  (the  box), 
and  after  the  dreary  hours  of  the  first  part  of  my 
voyage  up,  I  was  looking  forward  with  eagerness  to 


'^SiK?r 


THE    SUDD  135 

my  arrival  there.  We  reached  it  one  evening  just  as 
the  mosquitoes  were  beginning  to  wake,  but  I  looked 
in  vain  for  any  vestige  of  a  station.  At  length  the 
reis  pointed  out  a  melancholy-looking  box,  on  a 
rickety  pole,  and — this  was  Sanduk.  It  had  been  put 
there  as  a  landmark  by  some  sportsman  who  must 
have  been  leaving  the  district  for  ever,  otherwise  he 
could  never  have  displayed  such  energy  and  playful- 
ness. That  it  was  a  snare  and  a  delusion  to  men  I 
can  affirm  fi'om  dread  experience.  It  contained,  I 
believe,  one  bottle,  reputed  to  be  full  of  whisky  ;  but 
I  never  took  the  trouble  to  explore,  one  disappoint- 
ment was  quite  sufficient. 

Shambe,  an  island  in  a  swamp  in  the  times  of  rain, 
but  in  the  dry  season  quite  a  presentable  little  station, 
stands  near  the  southern  limit  of  the  sudd  district. 
Any  place  where  one  could  land  would  be  acceptable 
after  the  awful  swamp  through  which  one  has  to 
pass  in  these  districts.  There  is  a  large  lake  im- 
mediately in  front  of  the  village,  the  resting-place  of 
a  large  number  of  hippopotami.  It  was,  I  believe, 
due  to  a  shooting  expedition  here  by  moonlight,  that 
I  contracted  the  illness  which  sent  me  home  to  Eng- 
land in  my  first  year.  The  hippopotami  go  ashore  to 
feed  at  night,  and  the  moon  being  just  at  its  zenith, 
two  other  men  and  myself  decided  to  try  and  get  a 
shot  at  them.  For  several  hours  we  wandered  about, 
with  the  water  often  above  our  waists,  and  with  no 
tangible  result  in  the  way  of  sport.  When  I  returned 
to  the  boat  I  felt  thoroughly  chilled,  but  a  stiff  glass 
of  whisky  made  me  all  right  then.    However,  I  was 


136        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

not  altogether  fit  for  the  rest  of  my  trip,  and  about 
a  fortnight  later  I  developed  dysentry.  Unfortunately 
when  it  became  severe  I  was  out  of  the  reach  of  an 
English  medical  man,  and  acting  on  the  principle  that 
if  nature,  unassisted  by  constant  habit,  craved  for  a 
thing,  it  could  not  be  injurious,  I  indulged  a  newly 
born  and  irrepressible  desire  for  pickles,  Worcester 
sauce,  and  other  indigestibles.  In  a  moment  of 
weakness  I  had  parted  with  my  cook  to  another 
man,  to  help  him  out  of  a  difficulty,  and  was  conse- 
quently at  the  mercy  of  a  small  boy,  who  did  nothing 
that  he  was  not  obliged  to,  and  then  only  with  as  bad 
a  grace  as  possible.  If  I  asked  for  eggs,  they  appeared 
hard  boiled  an  hour  later  ;  if  I  called  for  soda,  it  was 
brought  to  me  boiling;  if  I  asked  for  tea,  I  could 
expect  it  when  I  had  forgotten  the  order,  cold.  The 
.consequence  was  that  notwithstanding  the  kindness 
of  two  EngHshmen  who  were  on  board  for  a  great 
part  of  the  journey,  I  arrived  in  Omdurman  at  last 
in  a  state  of  collapse.  I  spent  about  a  month  at  a 
friend's  house,  during  which  time  I  had  the  enormous 
satisfaction  of  hearing  that  my  late  servant  had  been 
sent  to  gaol  for  stealing  bottles  from  the  house  where 
I  was  a  guest. 

On  the  morning  after  my  arrival,  I  woke  to  find 
a  new  boy  at  my  side  with  milk.  He  did  not  offer 
any  explanations,  and  at  the  time  I  scarcely  noticed 
more  than  that  I  was  not  troubled  with  the  presence 
of  the  little  scoundrel  who  had  been  my  sole  attendant 
on  the  journey  south.  This  new  boy,  Mohammed, 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  finest  servants  I  have  ever 


THE   SUDD  137 

seen,  black  or  white.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Jaalin 
tribe,  the  one  tribe  which  remained  faithful  to  the 
British  in  the  time  of  the  Mahdi.  He  had  been  picked 
up  on  the  beach  of  Omdurman  by  a  British  naval 
officer  at  the  time  of  the  expedition,  and  I  never 
ceased  to  be  grateful  to  this  man — he  is  dead  now, 
poor  fellow — for  the  manner  in  which  he  had  trained 
the  boy.  He  was  quite  a  good  cook,  even  when  he 
came  to  me  at  the  age  of  fifteen ;  in  later  days  he 
attained  fame  as  a  chef ;  and  he  was  absolutely 
faithful  and  honest.  The  very  first  day  that  he 
came  to  me  I  opened  a  portmanteau  to  take  a  paper 
out  of  it,  and  forgot  to  lock  it  when  I  handed  it  back 
to  him.  Almost  a  month  later  I  remembered  that  I 
had  nearly  thirty  pounds — a  great  part  of  it  in  silver 
— ^in  the  bag.  I  opened  it  again  with  some  mis- 
givings, but  found  the  sum  intact,  even  to  milliems. 
During  the  whole  of  my  first  illness  he  was  untiring 
in  his  attentions,  and  on  every  subsequent  occasion 
when  I  was  ill  he  acted  with  the  same  solicitude.  I 
remember  two  incidents  particularly  well.  One  was 
when  I  was  in  the  awful  Civil  hospital  of  Khartoum 
a  year  or  so  before  I  left  the  country.  Half  my  nights 
were  spent  in  delirium,  though  I  could  recall  almost 
every  word  which  I  had  spoken  in  the  mornings.  Fre- 
quently I  called  this  long-suffering  servant  from  his 
rest  to  give  impossible  orders  ;  I  would  tell  him  to 
go  out  into  the  town  and  bring  me  a  cup  of  tea  ;  I 
would  tell  him  to  put  my  luggage  in  a  railway  carriage, 
and  give  him  other  orders  of  a  similarly  impossible 
nature.     He  would  listen  attentively  and  depart,  to 


138        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

return  in  a  few  moments  to  tell  me  that  he  had  done 
what  I  had  told  him,  or  that  the  shop  had  been  shut ; 
he  was  always  patient  and  humoured  my  slightest 
wish.  There  are  few  European  servants  who  would 
have  acted  in  the  same  manner  under  like  circum- 
stances. 

Again,  at  a  still  later  date,  when  I  was  suffering 
from  the  presence  of  a  malarial  microbe  in  the  joint 
of  my  knee,  the  same  thing  happened.  During  the 
first  night,  when  the  pain  was  at  its  worst,  and  before 
the  doctors  had  started  administering  morphia,  I 
called  him  dozens  of  times ;  he  came  each  time  as 
cheerfully  as  the  first.  The  next  night  he  came  into 
my  cabin  just  before  he  went  to  bed  and  attached  a 
cord  to  the  head  of  my  bed.  '"  The  other  end  of  this 
is  tied  to  my  pillow,"  he  said ;  '"I  am  very  sleepy 
and  I  am  afraid  that  I  may  not  hear  you  call,  but  if  I 
do  not,  pull  this,  and  it  will  wake  me." 

When  I  left  the  country  I  gave  him  as  large  a 
backshee.'^h  as  I  was  able  to,  and  I  only  regret  that  I 
could  not  have  doubled  it.  He  stayed  with  me  until 
a  few  months  after  I  left  the  Sudan,  when  he 
said  that  it  was  quite  impossible  for  him  to  remain 
in  a  country  like  Egypt,  where  the  women  took  no 
part  in  any  festivities  which  might  be  going,  and  he 
returned  to  his  own  land. 

After  a  month  I  was  sent  to  hospital,  which  was, 
by  the  way,  the  quarters  of  the  Khahfa's  harem  in 
the  old  days.  There  I  remained  for  nearly  a  month 
more,  and  finally  I  was  removed  to  Cairo.  I  was 
sent  up  in  the  charge  of  a  Syrian  doctor,  and  I  re- 


THE    SUDD  139 

member  my  satisfaction  when,  one  night  during  the 
journey,  I  was  able  to  persuade  my  boy  to  hunt  up 
a  tin  of  Maconochie's  rations,  which  I  devoured  cold 
in  the  fear  that  I  should  be  discovered  and  baulked 
of  my  meal  if  I  waited  to  have  them  cooked.  Curi- 
ously enough,  I  don't  think  that  they  did  me  much 
harm.  Truly  I  was  starving  ;  milk  and  soda  may  be 
good  for  one,  but  it  is  hardly  satisfying.  After  a 
fortnight  in  Cairo  I  was  sent  home  ;  I  put  Mohammed 
in  charge  of  a  European  chef  at  one  of  the  hotels,  and 
left  the  country  on  the  same  day  that  I  received  my 
instructions.  I  arrived  in  England  after  a  satisfying 
journey,  just  before  Christmas,  then  I  was  promptly 
put  back  to  my  milk  diet  again ! 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE  UPPER  NILE   AND   BELGIAN  CONGO 

ON  my  return  to  the  Sudan,  three  months  later, 
the  chief  thing  that  I  can  remember  is  the 
appalling  desire  for  sleep  which  beset  me  at  any  and 
every  moment  of  the  day,  when  I  was  not  actually 
engaged  in  physical  exercise.  If  I  sat  down  to 
read  I  would  fall  asleep  before  I  had  read  a  page, 
and  on  two  or  three  occasions  I  went  to  sleep  over 
my  meals.  It  was  terribly  trying,  but  I  suppose 
it  was  necessary  for  my  constitution  at  the  time ; 
at  all  events  it  gradually  got  better,  and  I  lost  it 
entirely  about  six  or  eight  months  after  my  return. 

After  remaining  in  the  Khartoum  district  for 
some  time,  I  went  south  to  Mongalla,  the  southern 
frontier  station  of  the  Sudan,  where  a  gunboat 
was  always  kept  at  the  disposal  of  the  resident 
British  inspector.  The  gunboat  on  which  I  lived 
was  one  of  the  most  unsteady  of  her  kind,  but  she 
belonged  to  a  useful  class,  one  that  could  go  up  any 
of  the  smallest  rivers,  and  she  carried  three  guns, 
two  maxims  and  a  12-pounder.  The  station  Mon- 
galla, and  the  adjacent  district,  were  at  that  time 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Borton,  who  has 
since  retired  fi-om  the  army,  and  is  now  Postmaster- 

140 


UPPER   NILE   AND    BELGIAN   CONGO    141 

General  in  Egypt.  My  duties  lay  in  cruising  about 
to  the  various  stations  which  he  had  to  inspect, 
and  also  the  presence  of  the  boat  gave  an  added 
appearance  of  authority  to  our  frontier  station 
which  lay  between  the  two  Congo  stations  of  Kiro 
and  Lado,  It  was  exceedingly  nice  work,  and  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  walking  from  one  side  to 
the  other  was  almost  enough  to  give  my  boat  a  list, 
I  spent  one  of  the  best  times  that  I  had  in  the  Sudan 
on  this  duty.  There  was  good  shooting  to  be  had 
in  the  district  which  came  under  Borton's  control,  and 
there  was  a  certain  amount  of  game  within  a  walk 
of  our  head-quarters  at  Mongalla. 

But  of  all  the  things  that  I  remember  most  clearly 
in  connection  with  this  district,  was  the  coming  of 
a  storm  one  beautiful  afternoon  when  I  was  out 
shooting.  It  was  truly  wonderful ;  everything 
was  calm  and  still,  when  suddenly  I  became  conscious 
of  a  dim  sound  as  of  rushing  water  in  the  distance. 
I  could  not  see  anything,  however,  so  I  imagined  that 
it  must  be  the  noise  of  the  breeze  in  the  trees  some 
distance  off.  A  few  moments  later  I  reached  the 
summit  of  a  small  hill,  and  from  there,  away  to  the 
east,  I  saw  an  advancing  sheet  of  shimmering  white, 
some  three  or  four  hundred  yards  in  width.  Even 
then  I  could  not  for  a  moment  imagine  what  it  was, 
but  at  length  the  truth  dawned  on  me.  It  was 
rain.  It  came  swiftly  and  regularly  towards  me, 
the  sound  of  its  falling  growing  louder  each  second. 
Seeing  at  last  that  it  was  really  only  a  "  slice  "of 
water,   and   that  without  the  sphere  of  its  width 


142        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

there  was  apparently  no  rain  falling,  I  tried  to 
avoid  it;  but  I  started  just  too  late.  One  moment 
I  was  standing  in  the  sunshine  of  a  tropical  after- 
noon, the  next  I  was  absolutely  drenched  to  the 
skin ;  yet  another  moment  and  only  the  wet  under- 
foot remained  as  evidence  that  the  thing  had  hap- 
pened. I  walked  on  perhaps  a  dozen  yards  and  the 
ground  was  cork  dry ;  not  a  drop  of  moisture  had 
touched  it.  I  found  later,  when  I  returned  to  the 
village,  that  the  storm  had  caught  one  half  of  Mon- 
galla ;  the  guardship,  the  Melik,  had  not  a  dry 
corner  in  her,  while  my  own  boat,  the  Ahii  Klea, 
had  been  untouched.  I  never  saw  more  heavy  rain 
in  the  Sudan,  and  I  think  that  its  extreme  local 
nature  was  very  exceptional.  This  happened  after 
I  had  been  some  months  in  the  station,  and  it  marked 
the  beginning  of  the  rains.  When  they  had  once 
started  you  were  never  safe  ;  it  would  be  cloudless 
one  minute  and  pouring  with  rain  the  next.  I 
never  stayed  in  for  it  if  I  wanted  to  go  out,  as  a 
matter  of  fact  I  rather  liked  shooting  in  the  rain,  it 
reminded  me  of  England ;  and  I  had  a  theory  that 
if  one  had  a  hot  bath  immediately  it  would  counteract 
the  evil  effects  of  a  chill.  I  did  not  suffer  from 
fever  then  as  much  as  the  men  who  were  careful  to 
avoid  getting  wet ;  but  whether  the  after-effects  of 
rheumatism,  which  have  bothered  me,  were  due  to 
my  previous  defiance  of  the  elements  is  more  than 
I  can  say.  In  Khartoum  a  rainy  day  upsets  every- 
thing ;  no  one  works  and  no  one  is  expected  to  do 
so,  but  in  that  district  rain  falls  so  seldom  that  it 


UPPER  NILE  AND  BELGIAN  CONGO     143 

is  a  very  different  matter  from  the  southern  region, 
where  the  rains  occupy  the  major  portion  of  the  year. 
The  natives  of  the  Mongalla  district  are  of  the 
Behri  tribe,  lank  and  lazy,  yet  like  the  rest  of  the 
native  population  of  the  Sudan  they  have  great 
possibilities  in  them  if  we  could  rid  them  of  the 
conservatism  which  has  decreed  that  it  is  unmanly 
to  labour.  The  heroes  of  the  grass-cutting  incident, 
which  I  have  already  related,  were  members  of  this 
tribe.  They  live  largely  upon  fish  which  they  lance 
in  the  water,  but  it  is  a  sport  which  requires  an 
infinite  amount  of  skill,  and  even  most  practised 
spearmen  frequently  return  empty-handed.  Cer- 
tainly they  have  not  the  appearance  of  being  over- 
nourished  ;  they  are  exceedingly  thin,  and  are 
physically  the  weakest  tribe  of  the  Sudan.  They  also 
lack  the  keenness  of  either  the  Dinka  or  Shillouk 
tribes ;  they  do  not  appear  to  take  a  real  interest 
in  anything,  but  are  quite  contented  to  spin  out 
their  existence  at  the  doors  of  their  miserable  mud 
or  straw  huts,  as  long  as  they  can  procure  sufficient 
food  to  keep  life  in  their  bodies.  Their  women  are 
for  the  most  part  miserable  and  ill-nourished  in 
appearance,  and  I  think  that  a  great  deal  of  the 
lassitude  of  the  tribe  is  due  to  the  fact  that,  year  in 
and  year  out,  they  pass  their  nights  under  the  ban 
of  the  dread  mosquitoes.  Some  people  are  under 
the  impression  that  mosquitoes  do  not  trouble  the 
black ;  this  is  an  entire  fallacy,  they  appear  to  be 
every  whit  as  sensitive  to  the  sting  as  the  white 
men.     I  have  watched  the  unfortunate  people  at 


144        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

night-time  squatting  round  the  small  fire  they  have 
built  in  the  vain  attempt  to  ward  off  the  insects. 
My  boat  has  lain  close  in  to  some  of  their  huts  at 
night,  and  unceasingly  through  the  long  hours  they 
have  flapped  away  at  the  swarms  which  surround 
them ;  between  sunset  and  sunrise  there  was  never 
peace  in  the  camp — it  was  war  the  whole  night 
through.  Undisturbed  sleep  was  an  impossibility ; 
they  were  not  possessed  of  sufficient  clothing  to 
cover  their  bodies  as  the  more  civilised  Sudanese 
further  north,  and  they  were  therefore  at  the  entire 
mercy  of  the  fever-laden  insects.  Who,  therefore, 
can  wonder  that  in  the  morning  they  are  only  too 
ready  to  seek  the  shade  of  their  huts  and  drowse 
away  the  time,  obtaining  then  the  sleep  that  nature 
demands,  and  which  has  been  denied  to  them  in  the 
hours  during  which  it  should  legitimately  have  been 
theirs.  I  am  convinced  that  you  have  only  to  supply 
these  people  with  good  mosquito  curtains  in  order 
to  make  new  men  of  them ;  in  any  case,  the  experi- 
ment would  be  worth  making. 

There  are  huge  herds  of  elephants  in  this  part  of 
the  Sudan.  On  one  occasion  information  was 
brought  to  the  ship  that  there  were  elephants  in  the 
neighbourhood.  At  that  time  I  had  not  got  the 
second  elephant  which  I  was  allowed  under  the 
regulations ;  neither  had  another  man  who  was  on 
board  at  the  time,  Captain  Carey,  so  we  went  out 
together,  a  mistaken  thing  to  do,  for  one  man  is 
almost  certain  to  spoil  the  other's  sport.  We  had  not 
gone  very  far  before  the  well-known  rumbling  sound 


UPPER  NILE  AND   BELGIAN  CONGO    145 

of  the  animals'  stomachs  in  the  near  distance  told  us 
that  we  were  in  close  proximity  to  them,  and  in 
another  minute  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  huge  form 
about  a  hundred  yards  ahead.  There  was  scarcely 
any  breeze  ;  this  is  always  a  disadvantage,  as  without 
it  is  impossible  to  keep  to  leeward  of  the  animals. 
They  are  as  blind  as  bats,  but  they  can  scent  a  human 
being  for  miles,  and  once  they  have  done  this  your 
chances  of  a  shot  are  practically  nil,  unless,  indeed, 
you  happen  to  be  scented  by  an  old  rogue  elephant, 
one  that  has  been  turned  out  of  the  herd  by  the 
younger  bulls,  or  by  a  cow  elephant  with  her  young. 
In  either  of  these  cases  you  stand  the  risk  of  taking 
a  flying  shot  at  the  beast  as  you  are  being  charged — 
a  privilege  which  is  not  always  acceptable,  especially 
as  an  elephant  is  practically  invulnerable  from  the 
front. 

We  worked  round  gradually,  smoking  cigarettes 
and  choosing  our  direction  by  the  line  of  the  smoke 
till  we  thought  we  were  in  a  fairly  good  position  to 
advance  and  shoot.  At  that  moment,  however,  there 
was  a  rumble  just  behind  us,  and  we  lay  in  waiting. 
A  young  bull  elephant  passed  us  within  about  thirty 
yards,  moving  slowly  along,  picking  choice  morsels 
off  the  trees  as  he  passed.  We  waited  until  the  coast 
was  clear,  and  then  moved  on  again  towards  the  large 
tusker  we  had  set  our  hearts  upon.  When  we  got 
up  to  him,  he  was  standing  with  three  others,  at 
about  forty  or  fifty  yards*  range.  The  ground  was 
very  bad,  and  we  decided  to  try  and  get  round  a  little 
further  still ;   fifty  yards  is  really  too  long  a  range 


1M;        five    YEAl^S   IN   THE   SUDAN 

to  shoot  these  animals  at,  especially  as  we  only  had 
•303  calibre  rifles.  It  was  well  that  we  did  so.  We 
walked  on  cautiously,  and  rounding  a  clump  of  trees, 
came  imexpectedly  upon  a  young  bull,  moving  in 
a  cross  direction  to  the  one  which  we  were  pursuing. 
We  both  stood  absolutely  still  in  the  hope  that  we 
might  not  be  seen.  The  animals  are,  as  I  have 
already  said,  very  short-sighted,  and  the  best  thing 
to  do  under  such  circumstances  is  to  stand  immovable. 
The  chances  are  that  you  will  not  be  discovered.  I 
suppose  we  were  too  close ;  he  must  have  caught 
a  glimpse  of  our  moving  bodies,  or  a  breath  of  air 
warned  him  of  our  approach.  He  stopped  dead  and 
faced  us,  and  a  mutual-admiration  seance  lasted  for 
perhaps  half  a  minute.  Before  he  took  action  we 
were  about  twelve  or  fifteen  yards  from  him ;  but 
suddenly  he  raised  his  trunk  into  the  air,  stuck  out 
his  great  ears  at  right  angles  to  his  body,  and  ad- 
vanced to  investigate  more  closely.  I  am  not  sure 
what  Carey  did,  I  could  not  see  ;  but  when  I  stopped 
I  found  that  the  animal  had  probably  had  as  great 
a  fright  as  I  had  myself,  because  he  was  disappearing 
with  much  speed  in  the  opposite  direction.  It  had 
frightened  the  rest  of  the  herd  too,  apparently,  for 
we  did  not  see  any  others  for  some  time.  As  we 
were  returning  to  the  boat  we  came  upon  them 
unexpectedly  on  the  ground  that  we  had  covered 
while  stalking  in  the  first  place.  We  got  on  to  an 
ant-heap  to  take  our  bearings,  and  from  this  point 
saw  a  truly  wonderful  sight. 

The  surrounding  country  was  literally  alive  with 


UPPER  NILE  AND  BELGIAN  CONGO    147 

elephant,  including  several  cows  with  young.  I  was 
thankful  then  that  we  had  not  followed  our  original 
intention  of  firing  when  we  had  the  fifty-yard  chance 
at  the  first  bull,  for  had  we  done  so,  the  whole  herd, 
alarmed  at  the  shot,  would  have  stampeded,  and  as 
we  were  pretty  well  surrounded,  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  one  of  the  cows  would  have  chanced  in 
our  direction.  Had  this  been  the  case,  the  end  would 
not  have  been  pleasant,  for  the  lack  of  a  sufficiently 
pronounced  breeze  made  it  impossible  to  know 
where  to  turn  without  careful  observation.  After 
watching  the  herd  browsing  for  a  considerable  time, 
we  continued  to  try  for  another  and  better  shot,  but 
dusk  fell  before  an  opportunity  presented  itself, 
and  we  were  eventually  forced  to  give  it  up  for  the 
night.  But  the  afternoon's  experience  was  a  re- 
markable one,  and  I  would  not  have  missed  it  for 
anything ;  it  is  seldom,  even  in  these  regions,  that 
one  chances  across  a  herd  as  large  as  this,  and  more 
seldom  still  that  one  sees  the  baby  elephant  being 
trained  to  pick  the  young  green  shoots  off  the  trees 
with  its  trunk,  as  we  did  on  this  occasion. 

Captain  Carey  got  a  fine  bull  a  few  weeks  later,  but 
it  was  some  time  before  I  had  another  opportunity 
of  shooting  one. 

The  Belgian  stations  certainly  are  much  more 
picturesque  in  their  appearance  than  our  own,  but 
this  is  owing  to  the  custom  of  the  Belgian  authorities 
of  making  a  small  clearing,  and  building  all  the 
residences  close  together,  instead  of  spreading  them 
out,  as  is  usual  in  our  stations.     Kiro,   the  most 


148        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

northern  station  of  the  Congo  on  the  Nile,  is  very 
pretty  and  clean ;  Lado,  the  second  station,  is 
prettier  still.  Even  if  there  were  no  flags  or  Euro- 
peans visible,  no  one  could,  by  any  stretch  of  inaagi- 
nation,  think  that  they  were  British,  their  whole 
appearance  is  so  absolutely  foreign.  There  are  some 
very  nice  buildings  in  these  stations,  some  of  them 
are  roofed  with  corrugated  iron,  some  are  neatly 
thatched  with  straw  ;  but  though  the  scenic  effect 
is  charming,  they  are  all  much  too  close  together 
for  comfort.  Thriving  fruit  trees  abound  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  stations,  papaw  and  banana  being 
the  principal  fruits  grown. 

The  natives  here  are  absolutely  different  to  the 
tribes  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Nile  ;  they  are 
short  and  thick  set ;  the  women  are,  for  the  most 
part,  quite  as  tall,  if  not  taller  than  the  men.  Some 
of  them  are  beautifully  proportioned,  but  they  have 
not  such  refined  faces  as  some  of  the  more  savage 
tribes  of  the  Sudan.  The  women  shave  their  hair, 
with  the  exception  of  a  small  tuft  which  is  left  at  the 
very  top  of  the  head.  The  effect  is  not  as  unpleasing 
as  one  would  imagine ;  it  seems  so  typical  of  them, 
one  is  familiar  with  it  the  moment  one  sees  it.  They 
are  not  a  moral  race  ;  indeed,  they  are  decidedly 
inclined  in  the  opposite  direction ;  the  standard  of 
morality  is  low,  lower  than  that  of  the  British  stations 
in  the  Sudan.  All  women,  even  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  non-commissioned  officers  of  the  Con- 
golese army,  appear  to  hold  no  tie  sacred,  or  to  regard 
free  love  with  anything  but  favour.     The  men  are 


UPPER  NILE  AND  BELGIAN  CONGO    149 

entirely  indifferent  as  to  what  their  women-folk  do, 
and  will  deliberately  connive  at  wrongdoing,  pro- 
vided that  their  consciences  receive  sufficient  pecu- 
niary satisfaction. 

All,  or  very  nearly  all,  of  the  European  officers  in 
the  stations  keep  women,  and  their  relations  with 
them  are  very  different  to  that  of  the  Englishman 
with  his  Sudanese  wife  further  north.  In  the  Congo, 
the  relationship  which  exists  is  an  openly  avowed 
one,  and  I  have  known  officers  invited  by  the  British 
officer  in  command  of  Mongalla,  to  visit  the  town  in 
state  and  take  their  wives  with  them  ;  the  latter 
accompanying  them  in  all  their  visits  about  the 
station.  It  is  the  custom  in  these  stations  also  to  ex- 
tend hospitality  in  this  direction.  Most  of  the  women 
appear  to  be  without  any  pretensions  of  modesty, 
and  though  in  the  villages  they  are,  if  anything,  more 
fully  clothed  than  the  Sudanese  women,  they  will 
bathe  openly  in  public  places  with  an  entire  disregard 
as  to  the  nudity  of  their  condition.  It  may  be  that 
the  lack  of  religion  in  all  form  has  something  to  do 
with  this  trait  in  their  characters,  for  though  some  of 
the  natives  of  these  districts  profess  Mohammedanism, 
the  majority  of  the  race  are,  I  believe,  nullifidian,  and 
do  not  possess  even  the  pagan  forms  of  faith  which 
obtain  among  the  savages  of  the  Sudan  properly. 

In  the  latter  country,  women  who  are  clothed  at  all 
are  careful  to  retain  their  modesty  in  public,  though 
they  are  anything  but  a  modest  race ;  the  tribes 
which  are  unclothed  are  modest  in  their  entire  inno- 
cence and  lack  of  self-consciousness. 


150        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

As  in  the  Sudan,  marriages  between  the  natives 
here  are  contracted  at  a  very  early  age,  the  boy  is 
usually  about  fifteen  years  old,  and  the  girl  nine 
or  ten.  Wives  are  comparatively  cheap,  a  good  deal 
cheaper  than  they  are  further  north  ;  but  then  the 
demand  is  not  so  great,  and  in  the  less  populous  dis- 
tricts it  is  always  cheaper  to  accomplish  matrimony 
than  it  is  in  the  large  towns,  or  in  crowded  agricul- 
tural districts.  It  is,  however,  curious  that  in  the 
Fashoda  district  there  is  a  fixed  price  for  a  wife- 
four  cows — and  a  boy  has  to  be  really  wealthy  before 
he  can  afford  this.  In  those  districts  I  believe  that 
the  proportion  of  males  and  females  is  almost  equal, 
and  this  perhaps  explains  the  comparatively  high 
charges. 

Though  the  Congo  Free  State  is  Belgian,  I  only 
met  one  Belgian  officer  during  my  residence  in  the 
district ;  they  are  nearly  all  Italian  ;  men  who  have 
for  some  reason  or  another  left  their  own  army  and 
sought  military  glory  in  other  lands.  Every  white 
man  in  the  station  takes  his  food  at  the  same  mess, 
and  I  am  more  than  ever  convinced  that  this  is,  in 
the  long  run,  a  mistake.  Distinctions  of  class  are  not 
so  marked  here  as  in  the  British  Army ;  the  non- 
commissioned officers  frequently  struck  me  as  being 
quite  on  a  grade  with  their  superiors  ;  but  neverthe- 
less the  system  of  equality  leads  to  endless  trouble 
at  times,  especially  when  visitors  are  present.  These 
troubles  are,  of  course,  not  openly  evident  to  the 
visitor,  but  I  have  been  told  by  both  commissioned 
and  non-commissioned  officers  that  the  arrangement 


UPPER  NILE  AND  BELGIAN  CONGO    151 

of  the  seats  frequently  leads  to  violent  incriminations 
among  the  lower  members  of  the  mess,  when  they 
consider  that  a  visitor  should  have  had  his  position 
at  table  altered  by  one  place  or  some  equally  petty 
thing  of  this  kind.  The  Belgian  Government  allows 
its  messes  a  Hberal  entertaining  allowance,  and  I 
never  found  them  backward  in  their  hospitality  ;  one 
had  only  to  put  in  an  appearance  in  the  district,  and 
an  immediate  invitation  to  dine  would  be  dispatched 
to  you.  Personally,  I  used  to  rather  dread  these  en- 
tertainments, though  politeness  forbade  a  refusal,  for 
it  meant  absorbing  a  huge  amount  of  impossibly 
sweet  champagne  ;  and  as  I  spoke  very  little  French 
and  no  Itahan,  and  my  hosts  spoke  no  other  lan- 
guages, it  was  rather  hard  to  sustain  an  animated 
conversation  all  the  time.  They  were  without  ex- 
ception on  the  most  friendly  terms  with  all  the 
Englishmen  in  the  district  when  I  first  arrived  ;  but 
a  cloud  fell  on  our  relations,  even  before  the  sudden 
occupation  of  an  outpost  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  by 
an  officer  of  the  Congo  put  us  within  a  measm-able 
distance  of  war. 

The  incident  which  led  up  to  our  strained  relations 
was  this.  Neither  of  the  three  stations  of  the  Congo 
territory  on  the  Nile  had  a  resident  doctor  ;  in  cases 
of  illness  they  used  to  send  down  to  us,  and  we  would 
allow  the  resident  medical  officer  at  Mongalla,  a 
Syrian,  to  attend  their  patient.  It  happened  on  one 
occasion  that  one  of  the  British  officers  stationed  at 
Mongalla  was  seriously  ill  with  fever ;  his  tempera- 
ture rose  to  an  alarming  height  even  for  the  Sudan, 


152        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

where  high  temperatures  are  common  on  the  least 
provocation,  and  the  doctor  was  somewhat  alarmed 
at  his  condition.  One  evening  towards  sunset,  when 
there  was  still  room  for  considerable  anxiety,  an 
officer  of  the  Congo  came  down  from  Lado  to  take 
the  doctor  back  with  him  to  see  a  non-commissioned 
man  there  who  was  seriously  ill.  Captain  Borton, 
who  as  I  have  said  was  in  command  of  the  station, 
explained  the  case,  and  pointed  out  that  much  as  he 
regretted  having  to  refuse,  he  could  not  send  the 
doctor  out  of  the  station  while  one  of  our  own  officers 
was  in  danger.  The  emissary  from  the  Congo  ap- 
peared to  be  somewhat  annoyed ;  this  was  perhaps 
to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  he  had  had  a 
long  and  tiring  journey  in  the  sun  for  nothing,  and 
that  he  was  disappointed  at  not  being  able  to  convey 
the  desired  assistance  to  his  man  at  Lado.  However, 
there  was  nothing  more  to  be  said  ;  the  thing  was  an 
impossibility,  and  that  was  an  end  of  the  matter. 
A  few  days  later  Borton  had  occasion  to  go  up  to 
Gondokoro,  and  consequently  we  had  to  pass  the 
Lado  station.  According  to  our  universal  custom 
we  put  in  there  for  a  few  minutes  to  exchange  com- 
pliments, but  much  to  our  astonishment  only  one 
officer  turned  out  to  meet  the  boat.  Finally,  as  an 
afterthought,  one  or  two  other  officers  came  out,  but 
the  commandant  of  the  station  never  put  in  an 
appearance  at  all.  It  was  a  deliberate  affront  to  the 
British  flag,  and  the  officer  already  alluded  to — a 
Belgian — who,  by  the  way,  was  a  charming  man, 
felt  it  acutely.     He   confided   to   Borton   that   his 


UPPEE   NILE   AND    BELGIAN   CONGO    153 

confreres  had  been  annoyed  at  his  refusal  to  allow 
the  doctor  to  attend  the  sick  man,  who  had,  poor 
fellow,  since  succumbed.  It  was  sad,  but  his  death 
had  nothing  at  aU  to  do  with  the  question ;  an 
officer's  duty  lies  in  the  first  place  with  his  own  men, 
and  it  would  have  been  a  gross  act  of  unfairness  had 
our  doctor  been  allowed  to  leave  the  station  under 
the  circumstances.  Borton  said  little,  but  he  did  not 
stay  long ;  and  when  two  days  afterwards  we  re- 
turned, our  friends,  having  had  sufficient  time  to 
think  over  the  disgracefulness  of  their  behaviour, 
assembled  in  force  on  the  bank  to  greet  us ;  we  went 
past  at  full  steam.  We  dipped  our  flag  to  the  one 
which  flew  over  the  commandant's  quarters ;  and 
Borton  waved  cheerily  from  the  main  deck  ;  but 
that  was  the  extent  of  his  cordiality.  Several  days 
passed,  and  again  we  had  occasion  to  visit  Gondokoro. 
This  time  again  we  ran  no  risks,  but  passed  the  wait- 
ing officers,  under  full  steam,  both  going  up  stream 
and  coming  down.  The  following  day  Borton  had  a 
message  from  the  commandant  of  Lado,  asking  why 
he  had  not  paid  his  customary  visit  to  that  station. 
Borton,  following  the  example  of  Bismarck  when 
annoyed,  answered  in  his  own  language,  which,  of 
course,  was  incomprehensible  to  the  receiver.  To 
make  a  long  story  short,  the  end  of  the  afiair  was 
that  Captain  Borton  received  a  full  and  definite 
apology  in  writing  for  the  unwarrantable  treatment  to 
which  he  had  been  subjected,  and  the  matter  dropped. 
But,  as  a  general  rule,  the  officers  at  these  places 
were  hospitality  itself.     The  cosmopoHtan  stations 


164        FIVE   YEARS   IN    THE   SUDAN 

would  be  full  of  pomp  and  display  when  we  were  ex- 
pected ;  the  boat  would  be  met  by  all  the  officers  in 
full  uniform,  and  an  escort  of  military  musicians 
would  lead  the  way  to  head-quarters.  There  one 
would  sit  down  to  an  excellent  and  lavish  meal,  but 
it  would  be  served  on  a  tablecloth  which  had  evi- 
dently never  been  washed  since  its  early  youth.  It 
was  the  same  in  everything ;  if  the  reception  was 
imposing  and  the  food  good,  the  small  details  of  the 
feast  were  invariably  wretched  and  tawdry. 

Regaf  Hes  some  thirty  miles  to  the  south  of  Gondo- 
koro,  and  was  my  furthest  point  south.  I  recollect 
my  first  visit  to  this  station  well,  for  after  three 
hours  of  the  most  strenuous  endeavours  to  get  past 
the  shallows  of  Gondokoro,  during  which  time  I 
despaired  of  ever  reaching  Regaf  at  all,  one  of  my 
men  calmly  informed  me  that  we  were  attempting 
the  wrong  channel.  This  proved  to  be  true,  and  we 
passed  up  the  other  one  with  comparative  ease,  but 
I  seldom  had  a  more  nerve-shattering  experience 
than  that  of  following  its  upper  reaches.  It  twisted 
about  among  rocks  and  shoals,  and  at  every  corner 
it  seemed  as  though  the  Abu  Klea,  with  her  rudder 
hard  over  to  avoid  smashing  into  the  rocks,  must 
turn  turtle.  We  reached  there  at  last,  and  found 
a  band  on  the  foreshore  waiting  to  welcome  us.  I  did 
not  go  ashore  at  once  but  watched  the  procession 
from  the  deck,  which  was  much  more  amusing.  The 
officers  were  all  in  full  uniform,  with  swords  ;  Borton 
was  in  white  mufti ;  the  soldiers  were,  of  course,  in 
full  uniform,  and  behind  the  procession  marched  two 


UPPER  NILE   AND   BELGIAN   CONGO   155 

of  my  stokers,  black  from  the  stokehold,  and  the 
ship's  goat !  I  am  not  writing  this  to  ridicule  our 
hosts,  who  were  kindness  itself,  and  who  only  got  into 
full-dress  kit  as  a  mark  of  honour  to  Captain  Borton  ; 
but  nobody  who  had  a  bird's-eye  view  of  that  mixed 
procession  proceeding  to  the  Commandant's  quarters 
could  have  helped  being  amused. 

That  night  there  was  to  be  a  fantasia  for  our  special 
benefit,  and  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  I  saw  for  the 
first  and  only  time  the  famous  '*  stomach  dance  "  of 
the  Congolese.  They  kept  this  particular  dance  until 
the  end  of  the  evening ;  the  first  part  consisted  of 
ordinary  dances  similar  to  those  I  had  constantly 
seen  in  the  Sudan  ;  but  at  length  they  came  to  the 
part  they  loved,  and  if  some  of  the  performers  were 
not  in  pain  by  the  time  that  it  was  over,  they  are 
truly  a  most  wonderful  people.  A  man  and  a  woman 
stand  up  together  for  the  dance,  and  move  for  some 
time  round  one  another.  They  are  naked  except  for 
a  loin  cloth,  and  their  movements  are  graceful  and 
free.  Suddenly,  when  they  are  two  or  three  yards 
apart,  they  stop  and  face  one  another,  and  then  as 
suddenly  they  come  together,  their  stomachs  meeting 
with  a  report  like  that  of  a  pistol-shot.  They  do  this 
time  after  time  with  apparent  enjoyment,  and  the 
dance,  curiously  enough,  is  not  at  all  vulgar.  Im- 
mediately after  meeting  they  spring  apart,  indulge 
in  a  little  indiscriminate  dancing,  and  then  repeat 
the  performance.  It  was  certainly  the  most  popular 
feature  of  the  evening,  and  was  especially  appreciated 
by  my  crew,  to  whom,  for  the  most  part,  it  was  a 


156        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

novelty.  It  was  very  amusing,  and  I  thoroughly 
enjoyed  my  visit  to  this  station,  everyone  was  in  such 
good  spirits. 

In  the  afternoon  I  had  succeeded  in  evading  the 
kindly  proffered  attentions  of  one  of  the  officers  of 
the  station — we  could  neither  of  us  talk  the  other's 
language — and  had  strolled  out  to  explore  the  country 
by  myself.  It  is  very  attractive  country ;  to  the  south 
the  hills  of  Uganda  can  be  seen,  and  the  whole  vicinity 
of  the  station  is  well  wooded  and  green.  The  famous 
mushroom  stone  mentioned  by  Sir  Samuel  Baker  in 
his  book  "  Ismailia,"  is  quite  close  to  the  station,  and 
in  writing  of  it  he  certainly  did  not  exaggerate  its 
curious  properties.  Its  "  stalk  "  is  composed  of  a 
perpendicular  boulder,  about  four  feet  in  diameter 
as  far  as  I  can  remember.  On  the  top  of  this  is  poised 
a  gigantic  slab  of  granite — I  cannot  remember  its 
actual  dimensions  and  I  should  be  afraid  to  hazard  a 
guess,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  is  colossal.  It  is  not 
known  how  many  years  it  has  been  in  its  present 
state,  but  I  often  wonder  that  the  Sudan  Govern- 
ment does  not  run  launches  to  this  station  from 
Gondokoro  for  the  benefit  of  the  tourists  during  the 
season,  in  order  to  enable  them  to  see  it.  It  is  one  of 
the  natural  wonders  of  the  world. 

The  following  morning  I  went  up  to  the  top  of 
Mount  Regaf,  the  sentinel  which  guards  the  entrance 
to  the  navigable  Nile.  It  was  a  hot  and  tiring  climb, 
but  it  is  one  which  is  very  well  worth  the  expenditure 
of  energy  it  entails.  The  mountain  is  clothed  with 
verdure  on  every  side,  and  nestling  among  the  crevices 


UPPER   NILE   AND   BELGIAN  CONGO   157 

of  its  rocks  I  found  the  only  maidenhair  fern  which 
I  saw  in  the  country.  The  view  from  its  summit  is 
magnificent ;  the  Nile  is  not  navigable  to  the  south 
of  this  point ;  but  its  broken  waters  are  visible  for 
many  miles,  till  they  are  eventually  lost  among  the 
distant  hills.  I  spent  the  whole  morning  gazing  at  the 
panorama  from  different  points,  or  in  wandering  about 
on  the  steep  sides  of  this  mountain  ;  it  is  a  day  which 
stands  out  in  my  memory  as  one  of  the  best  I  spent 
in  Africa.  Everything  was  so  entirely  unexpected 
and  new.  I  was  constantly  discovering  small  re- 
minders of  England  in  slabs  of  moss-covered  rock, 
flowers,  ferns,  and  so  on,  and  England  has  always 
been  to  me  the  most  beautiful  country  on  earth. 

On  my  return  I  found  that  the  shooting-party  con- 
sisting of  Captain  Borton  and  several  Congolese 
officers  and  men,  which  had  left  the  station  in  the  early 
morning,  had  returned  triumphant  with  two  hinds  of 
the  water-buck  genus,  and  one  young  buck,  scarcely 
yet  weaned  from  its  mother.  Captain  Borton,  in  whose 
honour  the  shooting-party  had  been  held,  had  dis- 
graced himself ;  he  had  shot  nothing.  It  appears  that 
the  party  after  wandering  about  en  masse  for  some 
time  had  seen  a  herd  of  game  at  last,  but  unfortu- 
nately they  were  all  does.  Borton,  as  guest,  was 
politely  offered  first  shot,  which,  however,  he  natu- 
rally refused,  as  there  was  not  a  buck  in  the  herd,  and 
they  were  not  shooting  for  food.  Eventually  the 
commandant  of  the  station  showed  his  prowess  with 
the  rifle  and  brought  down  a  large  doe,  and  the 
soldiers  who  had  accompanied  them  actually  fired 


158        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

a  volley  into  the  retreating  herd  and  killed  two  more. 
The  officers  accepted  the  explanation  which  Borton 
gave  them,  but  it  was  evidently  incomprehensible  to 
them ;  and  I  believe  that  to  this  day  they  think  that 
he  refused  to  shoot  because  he  was  afraid  of  missing, 
and  so  disgracing  himself  before  them  all. 

The  officers  of  these  stations  very  seldom  shoot  at 
all.  When  they  are  in  want  of  meat  they  dispatch 
an  army  into  the  forests ;  surround  a  herd  and 
slaughter  it ;  it  is  quite  simple.  The  extraordinary 
thing  is  that  there  still  remains  any  game  to  be  shot ; 
at  the  present  rate  of  destruction  it  cannot  last  much 
longer.  Elephants  are  being  destroyed  in  the  same 
way  for  their  tusks ;  sport  does  not  enter  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  officers  and  civil  authorities  of  the  Congo. 

I  was  quite  sorry  when  we  had  to  leave  Regaf ; 
it  was  different  to  anything  I  had  seen  in  the  Sudan 
before.  I  liked  the  men  and  the  garrison ;  both 
were  clean,  and  better  ordered  than  those  of  the 
other  stations  of  the  same  Government  further  north. 
The  short  journey  back  to  Gondokoro  on  the  bosom 
of  a  river,  running  for  the  greater  part  of  its  way 
through  shoals  of  murderous-looking  rocks  at  the 
rate  of  thirty  miles  an  hour,  was  not  one  to  be  for- 
gotten. However,  swaying  from  side  to  side,  we 
accomplished  it  at  last,  and  spent  the  next  two  days 
at  Gondokoro.  Here  again  the  difference  from  the 
Egyptian  Sudan  is  very  marked  ;  to  begin  with,  the 
soldiers,  short  and  sturdy  as  the  men  of  the  Congo, 
wear  the  forage  cap  of  the  British  army  as  it  was 
before  German  fever  attacked  the  War  Office  authori- 


UPPER   NILE   AND   BELGIAN   CONGO   159 

ties  and  made  them  alter  it,  and  it  was  curious  to 
see  this  cap  in  place  of  the  tarboosh,  the  universal 
head-gear  of  Egypt  and  the  Egyptian  Sudan.  Then 
as  you  pass  the  outposts  at  night  you  are  greeted 
with  a  "  Who  goes  there?"  in  the  tongue  you  have 
sometimes  longed  to  hear  with  an  intensity  it  is  im- 
possible to  describe.  No  one  who  has  not  known  what 
it  is  to  hunger  for  the  sound  of  an  English  sentence  in 
place  of  the  eternal  Arabic,  can  realise  the  feelings 
which  arise  at  the  sound  of  such  a  call,  suddenly  and 
unexpectedly  breaking  the  stillness  of  an  African 
night. 

Sometimes  when  I  had  been  alone  for  any  great 
length  of  time,  the  sound  of  the  guttural  Arabic 
always  in  my  ears  got  on  my  nerves  terribly,  and  I 
started  to  teach  my  boy  English.  We  would  work 
at  it  hard  for  about  three  days,  then  both  of  us 
becoming  bored,  we  would  allow  the  subject  to 
drop.  It  is  extraordinary  how  much  of  the  English 
language  the  native  servants  manage  to  pick  up 
from  hearing  their  masters  talk  while  they  are  waiting 
at  table  ;  but  unfortunately  for  the  reputation  of 
most  Englishmen  it  usually  happens  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  vocabulary  in  their  servants'  possession 
is  thickly  and  bountifully  interspersed  with  adjectives 
— never  of  a  printable  description. 

Gondokoro  is  a  place  that  I  never  really  liked. 
It  is  open  and  bare.  To  the  south  there  is  certainly 
some  fine  scenery,  and  in  the  dry  season  it  may  be 
quite  a  nice  place  to  live  in,  but  it  is  a  spot  to  be 
avoided  in  the  rains,  when  the  surrounding  districts 


160        FIVE    YEARS   IN    THE   SUDAN 

are  swampy  and  unhealthy.  There  was  a  large  staff 
of  seven  Englishmen  there  when  I  first  visited  the 
station,  but  since  then,  I  am  told,  the  number 
has  been  reduced  to  one.  I  often  wonder  what  he 
does  with  himself  during  the  long  months  which  he 
spends  there  alone ;  when  there  is  not  even  shooting 
to  fill  up  his  spare  time.  In  the  winter  season  he  has 
fair  tourists  to  entertain,  now  that  they  arrive  with 
Cook's  circular  tickets  from  Khartoum,  but  their 
visits  are  very  transitory,  and  probably  have  the 
effect  of  accentuating  his  loneliness. 

The  houses  here  are  built  on  pillars  well  above  the 
level  of  the  ground  ;  the  wet  season  consequently 
loses  half  of  its  terrors,  since  one  is  always  certain  of 
dry  foundations.  This  style  of  house  is  worthy  of 
being  copied  throughout  the  Sudan,  but  unfortunately, 
though  the  principle  is  so  good,  the  houses  here  are 
far  from  being  well  built ;  indeed,  a  great  number  of 
them  are  really  unsafe,  and  some  of  them  have  already 
fallen  as  witness  to  the  fact.  In  my  opinion  the 
roofing  of  houses  with  corrugated  iron  is  a  very  great 
mistake  in  a  tropical  climate,  as  they  retain  the  heat 
in  the  summer,  and  the  damp  in  the  rainy  season. 
They  certainly  have  the  advantage  of  cleanliness, 
and  they  offer  no  refuge  to  the  insects  which  are  the 
pest  of  every  hot  country,  but  that  is  about  all 
that  can  be  said  of  them. 

The  first  man  whom  I  met  at  Gondokoro  turned 
out  to  be  a  great  friend  of  some  cousins  of  mine  in 
England  ;  they  had  been  the  last  people  with  whom 
he  had  dined  at  home  prior  to  joining  the  Uganda 


UPPER   NILE  AND   BELGIAN   CONGO   161 

Rifles.     The   more   you   travel   the   more   apparent 
becomes  the  smallness  of  the  world. 

The  soil  at  Mongalla  is  excellent,  and  we  succeeded 
in  growing  fine  crops  of  potatoes,  which  had  hitherto 
been  supposed  to  be  unsuited  to  the  Sudan.  In 
addition  we  had  all  the  other  vegetables  common 
to  the  country,  as  well  as  papaw  and  a  few  bananas. 

A  great  deal  of  smuggling  in  ivory  was  going  on 
in  the  Mongalla  district  when  I  first  went  up  there. 
It  was  known  to  exist,  but  the  Government  officials 
had  failed  to  ascertain  who  was  the  moving  spirit  in  the 
fraud.  The  sheikh  of  a  village  about  twenty  miles  from 
Mongalla  was  suspected ;  but  nothing  could  be  brought 
home  to  him,  and  the  thing  remained  a  mystery. 
One  afternoon  we  were  quietly  steaming  up  the  river 
towards  Mongalla  after  a  visit  to  Bor  further  north, 
when,  on  turning  a  corner,  we  espied  a  dug-out 
doing  its  best  to  efface  itself  in  the  grass  at  the  side 
of  the  river.  The  actions  of  its  crew  were  suspicious, 
so  we  stopped  to  investigate.  The  boat  was  heavily 
loaded  with  a  fine  cargo  of  new  ivory,  and  subsequent 
questioning  of  the  two  unfortunate  natives  who  were 
in  charge  of  it,  revealed  the  fact  that  it  was  the 
property  of  a  woman  by  whom  the  whole  system  of 
smuggling  was  run.  She  was  formerly  of  the  northern 
Sudan,  and  was  therefore,  comparatively  speaking, 
educated,  but  even  then  the  scheme  showed  re- 
markable enterprise  and  organisation  for  a  Moslem 
woman.  She  had  apparently  run  the  whole  thing 
for  years,  reaping  the  greater  part  of  the  profits 
herself,  the  ignorant  natives  under  her  orders  running 

M 


162        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

all  the  risks  and  getting  but  a  moiety.  We  put  the 
dug-out  in  a  safe  position  on  the  bank,  and  with  its 
crew  as  captives  proceeded  to  the  village  where  the 
enterprising  lady  had  her  head-quarters.  We  met 
her  hurrying  down  to  the  boat  to  pay  her  respects 
to  the  Bey,  quite  oblivious  of  the  fate  which  awaited 
her.  She  was  made  a  prisoner,  and  tried  at  Mongalla  ; 
her  guilt  was  established  without  a  shadow  of  a  doubt, 
and  eventually  she  was  deported  to  Suez  to  spend  a 
term  of  servitude.  She  was  a  cheery  old  soul,  and  I 
thoroughly  admired  her,  she  so  absolutely  gloried 
in  her  crime.  The  ivory  trade,  it  should  be  remarked, 
is  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the  Government ;  but  a 
famous  Greek  trader,  Angelo  Capato,  once  succeeded 
in  getting  permission  to  trade  for  it  in  the  Bor  dis- 
trict for  a  few  months.  He  sent  up  sixty  cattle,  one  of 
which  jumped  overboard  on  its  journey  south  and 
was  drowned ;  but  he  cleared  £1500  on  the  ivory 
that  he  secured  with  the  rest,  which  was  a  pretty 
good  percentage  on  his  original  outlay. 

I  killed  three  elephants  at  Bor,  the  capital  of  the 
mosquito  world.  One  afternoon  a  man  came  in  to 
say  that  there  were  elephants  in  the  district,  and  I 
went  out  at  once,  as  I  was  still  allowed  to  shoot  one 
more  elephant  on  my  license.  After  a  very  long 
time  I  succeeded  in  getting  close  enough  to  fire,  but 
I  foolishly  attempted  the  brain  shot,  with  the  result 
that  I  only  succeeded  in  wounding  the  beast.  He 
went  ofi  at  a  tremendous  pace  at  once,  and  I  followed 
his  spoor  for  at  least  a  couple  of  miles  before  I  caught 
sight  of  him  again.    I  could  not  get  close,  so  I  tried  a 


UPPER   NILE   AND   BELGIAN  CONGO    163 

shot  at  about  sixty  yards,  but  I  failed  to  kill,  and 
off  he  went  again,  while  I  followed  pretty  wearily  in 
his  wake.  At  last,  the  sun  having  almost  set,  I 
decided  to  leave  him,  and  send  a  man  out  on  the 
following  morning  to  pick  up  the  spoor,  and  report 
if  he  was  badly  wounded.  I  had  not  the  least  anxiety 
about  getting  back  to  the  boat,  for  I  had  purposely 
taken  two  natives  of  the  village  out  with  me.  They 
could  understand  a  little  spoken  Arabic,  but  could 
only  manage  to  put  two  or  three  words  together 
themselves.  At  length  I  made  them  understand 
that  I  wished  to  return,  and  to  my  surprise,  when  they 
collected  their  vocabulary  sufficiently  to  reply  to  my 
demand  to  be  led  to  the  steamer,  they  said,  "  arif 
mafeesh,"  which  meant  that  they  did  not  know  the 
way.  As  I  was  perfectly  certain  that  I  did  not,  I 
began  to  regret  my  expedition.  It  is  not  a  pleasing 
prospect  to  be  lost  in  a  place  like  this.  At  nine 
o'clock  we  were  still  walking  aimlessly,  when  one  of 
my  companions,  a  boy  of  about  fourteen,  suddenly 
stopped,  and  felt  the  ground  with  his  hand.  He 
then  held  a  long  palaver  with  his  companion,  the 
purport  of  which,  I  gathered,  was  that  he  had  dis- 
covered a  path  or  a  landmark  which  he  recognised, 
and  after  some  discussion  we  started  off  almost  at 
the  double.  The  track  we  had  discovered  was 
scarcely  deserving  of  the  name ;  it  led  us  through 
long  grasses  and  tangled  undergrowth,  but  I  was 
too  pleased  at  the  chance  of  reaching  the  river  to  be 
critical.  At  length  I  heard  the  welcome  sound  of  hard, 
beaten  ground  beneath  my  feet,  and  a  few  moments 


]iV[        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE   SUDAN 

later  1  saw  the  silhouette  of  a  tncJcel  (hut)  against  the 
sky.  We  were  greeted  with  demonstrations  of  affec- 
tion by  its  inhabitants.  I  suppose  it  was  the  usual 
native  hospitality,  extended  to  any  strangers,  for  it 
was  a  village  that  we  had  never  touched  at  before. 
One  old  lady — she  must  have  been  ninety  at  least — 
embraced  me  fervently,  and  then  offered  me  water, 
which  was  far  more  to  be  appreciated  under  the 
circumstances.  I  could  feel  the  mud  of  it  as  it  went 
down  my  throat ;  but  I  was  too  thirsty  to  be  par- 
ticular, and  I  finished  all  that  I  could  get.  Our 
hosts  did  not  want  us  to  leave  at  all  that  night,  but 
after  a  stay  of  nearly  half  an  hour,  we  started  to 
walk  in  the  direction  of  the  boat.  It  proved  to  be  a 
very  long  way,  and  took  us  a  good  hour's  fast  walking. 
We  had  one  exciting  moment  on  the  way.  My 
guides  were  walking  about  five  yards  ahead  of  me ; 
it  was  intensely  dark,  but  I  could  just  see  them. 
Suddenly  they  disappeared  ;  one  moment  they  were 
there  before  my  eyes,  the  next  they  had  vanished  into 
thin  air.  I  hastened  on,  thinking  that  perhaps  they 
were  tired  and  were  trying  to  escape  having  to 
accompany  me  all  the  way  back  to  the  boat ;  but 
at  almost  the  first  step  I  went  headlong  over  one  of 
them  who  was  lying  face  downward  on  the  ground, 
silent  as  death.  I  uttered  an  ejaculation  as  I  fell ; 
he  raised  himself  slightly,  and  motioned  me  to  be 
quiet.  I  therefore  lay  quite  still  where  I  had  fallen, 
and  in  another  minute  the  reason  for  all  this  mystery 
was  plain.  I  heard  heavy  breathing  not  ten  yards 
from  where  I  lay,  and  saw  the  outline  of  a  rhinoceros 


UPPER   NILE   AND   BELGIAN   CONGO    165 

going  slowly  up  from  the  river.  It  looked  mountain- 
ous against  the  gleam  of  the  water,  but  it  evidently 
had  not  scented  us,  for  it  lumbered  slowly  up  the 
bank  and  disappeared  into  the  forest.  The  rhino- 
ceros is  about  the  only  animal  that  will  invariably 
charge  on  sight,  so  it  was  as  well  that  we  were  not 
discovered,  for  in  that  darkness  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  shoot  with  any  degree  of  accuracy, 
and,  not  knowing  the  land,  it  would  also  have  been 
extremely  difficult  to  dodge. 

The  way  seemed  so  long  that  I  was  beginning  to 
think  that  we  must  be  going  in  the  wrong  direction, 
and  that  we  were  moving  away  from  the  boat  instead 
of  towards  it ;  but  at  last  we  heard  one  of  the  ship's 
guns,  and  in  another  ten  minutes  we  were  on  board 
again.  I  fomid  a  search  party  on  the  point  of  leaving 
the  boat ;  and  it  turned  out  that  they  had  been  firing 
the  cannon  at  intervals  for  some  hours,  although 
we  only  heard  it  when  we  were  not  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away.  Even  now  I  can  remember  the  taste 
of  the  whisky  and  soda  that  I  drank  as  I  sat  waiting 
for  my  bath  to  be  prepared. 

The  following  morning  I  sent  men  out  as  I  had 
intended,  but  whether  they  did  not  go  far  enough, 
or  whether  they  went  in  the  wrong  direction,  I  do 
not  know.  In  any  case,  they  returned  with  the  news 
that  no  trace  of  the  elephant  which  I  had  wounded 
the  day  before  was  to  be  found.  I  therefore  took 
advantage  of  another  chance  which  offered  the  same 
afternoon.  Elephant  were  again  reported  in  the 
neighbourhood,  and  I  went  out.     Captain  Borton 


1(U)        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

oanio  with  me  to  watch  the  sport,  though,  as  he  had 
kilk^d  his  second  elephant  a  few  days  before,  by 
moonlight,  he  could  not  shoot.  The  regulations 
of  that  year  allowed  each  man  only  two  elephants. 
It  was  a  brutal  day  ;  there  was  no  breeze  to  speak  of, 
and  it  was  very  difficult  to  work  round  always  to  the 
lee  side.  When  at  last  I  did  get  a  chance,  I  mulled 
it  by  shooting  with  my  sight  up  to  the  two  hundred 
yards,  the  bullet  consequently  going  yards  above 
the  animal's  back  and  only  having  the  effect  of 
scaring  him  away.  We  walked  for  miles,  and  I  was 
on  the  point  of  giving  up  hope,  when,  mounting 
an  ant-hill  to  take  a  last  look  round,  I  saw  one  of  the 
bulls  we  had  been  stalking,  calmly  strolling  along  in 
front  of  me  not  a  hundred  yards  away.  I  worked 
cautiously  round  to  get  a  broadside  shot,  and  took 
up  my  position  behind  some  dwarf  palms,  which  he 
must  pass  if  he  continued  the  direction  he  was  then 
taking.  He  came  as  close  as  I  could  desire,  and 
was  not  more  than  ten  yards  away  when  he  stopped 
and  gave  me  my  chance.  I  had  time  to  take  steady 
aim  at  his  heart,  and  fired.  He  went  down  on  his 
knees  to  the  shot,  and  I  was  sure  of  him.  But  as  I 
advanced  from  one  direction,  his  companion,  with 
ears  spread  and  trunk  waving,  crashed  in  from  the 
other  side  of  the  clearing,  and  for  a  moment  things 
looked  as  though  they  were  going  to  be  lively. 
However,  one  shot  discharged  wdth  the  intention  of 
turning  him  had  the  desired  effect,  and  he  disappeared 
into  the  surrounding  forest.  The  one  I  killed  proved 
to  be  quite  a  fine  tusker,  though  not  nearly  so  big 


UPPER  NILE  AND   BELGIAN  CONGO   167 

as  the  one  I  first  shot  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal.  We 
had  the  tusks  cut  out,  and  the  natives  of  the  sur- 
rounding district,  scenting  the  blood  like  birds  of 
prey,  swooped  down  almost  as  soon  as  the  beast  was 
dead  to  appropriate  this  unaccustomed  and  welcome 
addition  to  their  ordinary  menu.  We  were  leaving 
Bor  for  a  few  days,  so  I  left  the  tusks  to  be  cleaned 
and  dried,  and  gave  instructions  for  the  preservation 
of  the  feet,  which  if  properly  cured  make  very  good 
trophies.  Incidentally,  these  of  mine  were  not  pro- 
perly cured ;  so  my  longsuffering  family  assured  me 
some  months  later. 

On  my  return  to  the  station,  after  an  absence  of 
some  days,  jubilant  natives  came  with  news,  which, 
considering  the  severity  of  the  game  laws,  was  less 
welcome  to  me  than  they  had  anticipated.  They 
had  discovered  two  dead  elephants,  in  addition  to 
the  one  from  which  I  had  taken  the  tusks  before  I 
left.  The  one  I  had  wounded  and  left  as  only  slightly 
hurt  on  the  night  I  had  been  lost,  had  been  found 
dead,  and  the  second  one,  which  had  charged  into 
the  clearing,  and  which  I  had  fired  at  only  to  turn, 
had  avenged  himself  by  dying,  about  a  mile  away. 
It  was  a  most  unfortunate  affair,  but  I  had  to  make 
the  best  of  it,  and  I  wrote  a  lengthy  report  on  the 
subject,  which  was  duly  forwarded  to  the  Governor- 
General.  I  was  not  fined,  but  the  Government 
conj&scated  two  pairs  of  the  tusks.  I  suppose  I 
should  be  grateful  for  the  mercy  of  not  being  fined ; 
but  on  thinking  of  the  laxity  of  the  law  as  applied  to 
some  of  the  high  officials  of  the  Government,  and  as 


16S        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

Captain  Bortoii  had  very  kindly  written  a  report  on 
the  affair,  and  forwarded  it  with  mine  to  Khartoum, 
I  hoped  to  have  been  accorded  full  forgiveness. 
That  ended  my  elephant  shooting ;  for  though  I 
had  plenty  more  opportunities  during  the  year,  of 
which,  of  course,  I  was  unable  to  take  advantage,  I 
never  saw  another  when  the  time  of  prohibition  had 
elapsed,  and  I  was  free  to  shoot  again. 

Writing  of  elephants  reminds  me  of  two  amusing 
incidents  which  occurred  at  Mongalla.  One  of  the 
artillerymen  on  board  my  boat,  the  Abu  Klea, 
was  a  huge  Egyptian,  with  the  strength  of  two 
ordinary  men.  He  worked  well  enough  to  begin 
with.  One  Friday  morning,  the  weekly  holiday,  we 
were  at  Bor,  and  the  men  went  out  for  strolls  in  the 
forest  and  amused  themselves  as  best  they  might, 
there  being  no  work  at  all  that  day  save  for  the 
washing  down  of  the  decks  in  the  early  morning, 
and  the  cleaning  of  the  guns.  The  stalwart  artillery- 
man was  amongst  those  who  went  out,  but  he  some- 
how got  separated  from  his  companions,  who  arrived 
home  at  about  eleven  o'clock  to  sleep  in  true  Egyptian 
style  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  At  about  noon  the 
missing  man  came  in  in  a  terrible  state  of  heat,  and 
quite  exhausted.  It  appeared  that  he  had  been 
walking  quietly  along  when  he  suddenly  saw  an 
elephant  in  the  distance — very  much  in  the  distance 
too — but  it  had  alarmed  him  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  started  running,  and  ran  till  he  reached  the  boat. 
The  animal,  it  appeared,  had  not  seen  him ;  but  he 
did  not  want  to  give  it  the  chance  of  doing  so,  and 


UPPER  NILE   AND   BELGIAN   CONGO    169 

bolted  immediately.  Poor  fellow,  I  have  seldom 
seen  anyone  so  frightened.  He  sank  on  the  deck 
exhausted,  and  developed  a  violent  attack  of  fever 
as  a  result  of  his  unwonted  exertions.  For  evermore 
he  was  known  as  the  "  Feel,"  which  is  the  Arabic 
name  for  elephant.  It  may  be  that  his  figure  sug- 
gested the  pseudonym  in  the  first  place.  The  in- 
cident was  never  forgotten.  Some  time  afterwards 
he  developed  a  slackness  that  was  unbearable  ;  he 
was  constantly  pleading  sickness  to  avoid  work. 

On  one  occasion  the  men  were  ordered  out  to  carry 
some  boxes  containing  stores  from  the  boat  to  the 
magazine,  which  was  a  couple  of  hundred  yards 
from  the  shore.  As  usual,  the  work  being  rather 
heavy,  the  "  Feel "  was  absent,  and  Borton,  noticing 
this,  sent  for  him.  He  arrived  wrapped  up  in  many 
blankets,  and  moaning  a  gentle  accompaniment  to  his 
every  movement.  He  was  sent  to  the  doctor  for 
examination,  who  returned  him  with  the  brief 
comment,  "Quite  fit."  Captain  Borton  took  him 
very  quietly.  "  The  doctor  says  that  you  are  not 
ill,"  he  said. 

"  Tm  not  very  ill  now,  I'm  better,"  said  the  Feel. 

"'  Get  to  your  work  then,"  said  the  officer.  He 
glanced  up  at  Borton,  who  was  looking  distinctly 
genial.  This  encouraged  him  to  make  one  more 
venture  to  escape  the  work. 

"  I  am  not  very  ill,  but  it  would  be  better  if  I 
could  have  light  work,"  he  said. 

"  Good,"  said  Borton,  and  called  the  sergeant. 
*■  His  honour  the  elephant,"  said  Borton,  speaking, 


170        F1\'E    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

of  course,  in  Arabic,  "  is  not  very  ill,  but  it  would 
be  better  if  he  could  have  some  light  work.  Send 
for  the  chicken-crate  from  the  boat."  The  crate 
arrived,  a  fi'ail  wicker  affair  to  hold  about  four  fowl 
at  a  time.  '"  Good,"  said  Borton  again  ;  "  now  fetch 
me  one  fowl."  The  bird  was  fetched.  "  Now  call  the 
men  to  the  parade." 

The  men  were  called  to  the  parade  ground,  and 
thither  the  basket  with  its  solitary  occupant  was  con- 
veyed. Arrived  there,  the  unfortunate  artilleryman 
was  called  out  in  front  of  the  whole  force  of  Mongalla. 

"Now  place  the  crate  on  the  head  of  his  honour 
the  elephant,"  was  the  command,  and  the  order  to 
march  was  given  him,  and  he  was  kept  marching 
up  and  down  with  a  crate  containing  one  anxious- 
looking  fowl,  in  the  face  of  all  the  battalion.  At 
the  fifth  turn  he  could  stand  it  no  longer,  and  dropped 
to  his  knees,  saying  that  he  would  do  anything  save 
this.  "  Are  you  strong  enough  to  carry  boxes  ?  " 
he  was  asked,  and  on  replying  in  the  affirmative  he 
was  allowed  to  depart,  and  the  other  men  were  dis- 
missed. He  never  shirked  again,  and  subsequently 
got  his  stripes  on  Captain  Borton 's  recommendation. 

Defaulters  had  a  very  poor  time  under  Captain 
Borton.  The  bugle  would  be  blowing  nearly  all  day 
and  half  the  night,  and  certainly  the  unrest  to  which 
they  were  subjected  had  the  desired  effect.  There 
was  no  rest  now  in  being  locked  up  ;  it  was  one 
perpetual  round  of  fatigues,  and  the  offenders 
became  fewer  and  fewer  as  the  method  in  which  they 
were  regularly  treated  became  known. 


UPPER   NILE   AND   BELGIAN  CONGO    171 

It  was  at  Bor  that  I  saw  the  only  herd  of  zebra 
which  I  came  across  in  the  Sudan.  About  half  an 
hour  before  I  had  quite  unintentionally  killed  a  bush- 
buck  hind.  I  had  seen  a  buck  a  moment  before, 
and  did  not  know  that  there  was  a  hind  with  it. 
Therefore,  when  a  moment  later  I  saw  the  form  of 
the  animal  through  the  trees,  I  fired  at  once  without 
looking  for  the  head,  to  regret  it  a  moment  later  as  I 
saw  the  buck  spring  off  some  yards  away.  I  was 
furious,  and  had  started  on  my  way  back  to  the  boat, 
when  my  gun-bearer  informed  me  that  he  could 
see  water-buck,  and  I  turned  to  stalk  them.  It 
seemed  to  me  when  I  got  fairly  close  that  they  were 
a  strange  kind  of  buck,  but  my  sight  was  not  extra- 
ordinarily good,  and  my  boy  persisted  that  he  was 
right.  The  dusk  was  falling,  and  at  length  he  pointed 
out  the  form  of  an  animal  through  the  trees  and 
assured  me  that  it  was  a  fine  buck. 

"  Can  you  see  its  horns  ?  "  I  asked,  mindful  of  the 
doe  I  had  only  just  killed.  "  Yes,"  he  answered, 
"  they  are  very  big."  I  raised  my  rifle,  but  at  that 
moment  the  animal  merged  into  a  clear  space,  and 
I  saw  that  it  was  a  zebra  !  I  never  trusted  that  boy 
again. 

There  were  about  fifty  in  this  herd,  and  I  got  quite 
close  to  them  and  lay  there  watching  for  some  minutes 
before  they  got  wind  of  me  and  were  of!  at  a  gallop. 
The  shooting  of  these  animals  was  prohibited  in 
those  days,  and  quite  rightly,  for  they  are  very 
rare.  As  I  was  returning  to  the  boat  that  day  I 
got  the  biggest  water-buck  that  I  shot  in  the  country. 


172        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

Indeed,  I  was  very  lucky  in  my  shooting  while  I  was 
in  those  regions  ;  it  was  towards  the  end  of  the  time 
that  I  spent  in  the  Sudan,  though  I  had  visited  the 
district  on  flying  trips  several  times  before. 

The  very  last  time  that  I  was  out  big-game  shoot- 
ing, I  had  been  out  all  the  morning  with  but  little 
luck.  The  place  swarmed  with  water-buck,  and  I 
did  not  want  to  shoot  one  of  these  animals  unless 
it  had  an  exceptionally  good  head,  for  I  had  already 
got  a  good  number,  and  the  meat  is  not  attractive. 
However,  as  there  appeared  to  be  no  other  game 
in  the  district,  I  started  stalking  a  fine  buck,  and  at 
last  got  to  within  range  of  him,  where  he  was  browsing 
in  a  small  clearing.  It  had  been  difficult  going,  as  the 
grass  was  very  long,  so  I  lay  down  to  get  a  steady 
shot.  I  got  the  bead  fairly  on  his  heart,  and  was  on 
the  point  of  pulling  the  trigger  when  a  Jackson's 
hartebeeste  walked  right  across  my  line  of  sight. 
I  had  not  known  that  there  were  any  hartebeeste 
in  the  district,  and  I  was  so  surprised  that  I  nearly 
let  the  chance  escape  me.  However,  I  pulled  myself 
together  in  time,  and  fired  before  he  had  passed  into 
the  surrounding  grass.  He  proved  to  be  a  very  fine 
buck,  so  my  last  day's  shooting  turned  out  to  be 
among  my  most  successful  ones. 

It  was  just  about  this  time  that  a  Belgian  officer, 
planting  his  men  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  and  refusing 
to  move  them  at  the  request  of  the  British  comman- 
dant of  the  province,  gave  us  a  little  excitement  at 
Mongalla.  Had  the  thing  led  to  war  with  Belgium, 
as  seemed  at  one  time  to  be  possible,  we  should  have 


UPPER  NILE   AND   BELGIAN   CONGO    173 

started  with  a  bombardment  of  the  Belgian  forts 
on  the  Nile.  We  immediately  became  busy  with 
gun  practice,  and  it  was  scarcely  comforting  to  find 
that  the  two  big  guns  of  the  Sheikh,  which  was  lying 
guardship  at  the  Mongalla  station,  blew  out  their 
breeches  as  soon  as  they  were  tried.  It  was  a  good 
thing  that  war  did  not  break  out,  for  though  the 
little  pop-guns  on  the  Abu  Klea  were  in  fair  condition, 
she  only  had  one  heavy  gun,  and  this  would  not 
have  been  very  much  use  against  the  arrayed  forces  of 
the  Belgians  on  the  Nile.  It  was  an  exciting  time, 
taking  it  all  through.  One  never  knew  what  the 
next  orders  from  Khartoum  might  be,  and  in  the 
meantime  we  cruised  about  and  looked  important. 

The  scare  was  productive  of  at  least  two  good 
results.  In  the  first  place  it  led  to  a  thorough  over- 
hauling of  the  gunboat  fleet  of  the  Nile  ;  and  in  the 
second  it  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  channel  by  which 
boats  could  be  sent  up  to  Lado,  the  chief  Congo  port, 
without  touching  at  Kiro,  and  without  being  seen 
from  that  point.  Hitherto  the  only  known  navigable 
channel  was  the  main  one  which  ran  immediately 
past  the  station  of  Kiro  ;  therefore,  had  there  been 
fighting,  we  would  have  been  forced  to  waste  our 
energy  on  this  least  important  spot  first,  in  order  to 
free  the  channel  for  our  fleet  to  the  port  of  Lado 
further  south.  One  day,  however,  it  occurred  to 
Captain  Borton  to  try  a  small  channel  which  led 
up  into  the  swamp ;  and  we  found  that  there  was 
a  clear  though  narrow  passage  straight  through, 
joining  the  main  river  some  miles  north  of  Kiro. 


174        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

It  is  almost  a  pity  that  we  never  got  the  opportunity 
of  using  it,  for  it  would  have  been  such  a  tremendous 
surprise  to  the  Belgians,  who,  as  far  as  we  know,  are 
still  in  utter  ignorance  of  its  existence.  Had  there 
been  fighting,  my  job  would  not  have  been  altogether 
of  the  pleasantest,  for  I  should  in  all  probability 
have  been  sent  up  in  advance  of  the  main  fleet  to 
look  for  mines  in  the  river ;  and  as  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  Belgians  had  a  comprehen- 
sive system  ready  to  be  worked  at  the  first  breath  of 
trouble,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  I  should  have 
found  them. 

The  dispatches  notifying  us  of  the  scare,  and 
warning  us  to  prepare  for  possible  war,  arrived  about 
a  week  before  we  were  timed  to  leave  the  district 
for  the  north,  so  it  needed  all  the  compensation  of  a 
really  exciting  time  to  make  up  for  the  disappoint- 
ment. The  grass  was  too  high  to  shoot,  it  was  raining 
nearly  all  day,  and,  to  add  to  our  annoyance,  there 
was  the  thought  that  we  should  have  been  on  our 
way  on  leave.  Speaking  for  myself,  I  was  pretty 
sick  at  first  when  I  found  that  my  leave  was  post- 
poned, for  I  had  not  been  out  of  the  country  for 
two  years,  and  I  felt  that  I  needed  a  change.  The 
most  trying  time  of  all  came  after  the  first  scare 
had  passed  away,  and  it  seemed  to  be  improbable 
that  there  would  be  anything  in  the  way  of  a  fight ; 
but  as  nothing  definite  was  settled,  we  were  forced 
to  remain  idle,  watching  the  northern  horizon  for  the 
smoke  of  the  steamer  which  would  bring  us  definite 
news.     It  came  at  last,  and  the  next  day  we  left 


UPPER  NILE   AND   BELGIAN   CONGO   175 

Mongalla  behind  us  in  the  morning,  and  though  I 
had  not  the  slightest  idea  at  the  time  that  I  was 
not  to  return,  it  proved  to  be  the  last  time  that  I 
saw  the  station,  for  I  never  got  so  far  up  the  Nile 
again. 

I  was  glad  to  leave  the  station,  much  as  I  had 
enjoyed  the  time  I  spent  there.  Torrential  rain  fell 
nearly  every  day,  and  rendered  shooting  an  im- 
possibility. The  air  was  damp  and  heavy  with  the 
smell  of  decaying  vegetation,  and  it  was  good  to 
think  of  the  sandy  tracts  of  the  north,  where  every- 
thing would  be  clean  and  dry. 

We  left  Mongalla  at  about  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  at  half-past  three,  while  I  was  still 
enjoying  my  after-lunch  siesta,  I  was  called  by  one 
of  the  sailors  to  see  a  sight  that  I  would  not  have 
missed  for  the  world.  We  had  just  rounded  one  of 
the  numerous  sharp  curves  in  the  river,  and  had 
come  suddenly  upon  a  gigantic  herd  of  elephant 
which  had  been  drinking,  and  playing  about  the 
banks.  The  herd  included  numerous  baby  elephants, 
and  I  was  awakened  in  time  to  see  them  at  play  before 
they  became  aware  of  our  approach.  It  was  one 
of  the  prettiest  sights  which  I  have  ever  seen.  Most 
of  the  baby  elephants  were  right  on  the  banks  of  the 
river,  or  had  waded  some  way  out  into  the  water  for 
a  bath.  Their  mothers  were  plastering  them  with 
mud,  and  then  washing  it  off  with  copious  spouts  of 
water  from  their  trunks.  At  the  very  lowest  compu- 
tation there  must  have  been  quite  four  hundred 
animals  in  the  herd.     As  soon  as  they  became  con- 


176        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

scions  of  the  presence  of  the  steamer,  they  beat  a 
dignified  retreat  into  the  surrounding  jungles  ;  there 
was  no  Iiurry  ;  they  simply  strolled  ofE,  some  of  them 
picking  green  shoots  off  the  trees  as  they  went. 

We  took  the  journey  to  Khartoum  in  easy  stages, 
running  at  night  if  the  water  was  good,  but  if  it  was 
bad,  tying  up  until  the  morning.  The  only  draw- 
back to  the  whole  thing  was  the  evil  manner  in  which 
my  boat  behaved,  especially  as  the  fuel  was  consumed, 
and  the  holds  became  empty.  She  rocked  and  swayed 
in  the  wash  of  her  own  wheel  like  a  rowing-boat  in 
the  Atlantic,  and  after  a  prolonged  residence  in  the 
Sudan,  one's  nerves  are  not  as  strong  as  they  are  when 
one  first  arrives  from  England.  I  shall  never  forget 
it.  I  thought  she  would  go  down  every  moment, 
and  it  seemed  a  pity  to  lose  her  after  having  spent 
so  many  months  on  board.  One  evening  we  got 
right  into  the  bank  in  rounding  a  particularly  bad 
corner.  I  was  just  going  into  the  engine-room, 
which  was  on  the  main  deck,  when  a  crocodile  slid 
past  me  into  a  cabin  just  in  front  of  me.  I  had  not 
been  drinking,  so  I  had  the  courage  to  believe  my 
eyes,  and  called  the  sailors  to  capture  it.  They 
came,  and  to  my  great  disgust  let  the  animal  escape 
over  the  side  ;  it  was  quite  a  small  one,  and  had 
evidently  been  awakened  suddenly  while  sleeping 
on  the  bank,  and  had  jumped  in  the  first  direction 
possible,  which  happened  to  be  on  to  the  boat. 


CHAPTER   IX 

MISSIONARIES   AND   OTHERS 

IN  the  time  which  had  elapsed  during  my  first 
arrival  in  the  Sudan  and  my  return  from  Mon- 
galla,  changes  had  been  taking  place  in  every  direc- 
tion. Marchand's  fort  at  Fashoda  had  fallen,  to  make 
room  for  a  more  up-to-date  building  which  was  now 
the  residence  of  the  Mudir  of  the  province,  and  while 
it  certainly  had  no  pretensions  to  beauty,  it  at  least 
kept  out  the  rain  and  wind.  The  town  itself  was  fast 
losing  its  reputation  as  a  fever  spot,  a  good  portion 
of  the  swampy  ground  had  been  cleared  and  was  now 
clean,  and  the  place  was  made  cheerful  with  the  sound 
of  bugle  calls.  There  was  no  longer  any  difficulty  in 
getting  the  natives  to  take  the  coin  of  the  realm,  the 
difficulty  now  lay  in  the  opposite  direction,  to  pre- 
vent them  taking  too  much  ;  everything  was  altered  ; 
even  the  nature  of  the  natives  appeared  to  be  be- 
coming changed. 

It  is  customary  among  a  certain  class  of  English- 
men to  condemn  missionaries  and  their  work  at  first 
hearing.  This  is,  I  think,  most  unjust ;  it  is  only  fair 
that  they  should  be  accorded  a  judgment  upon  their 
merits,  and  as  a  body,  just  as  any  other  body  of  men, 
should  not  be  judged  by  isolated  cases.  I  was  in- 
terested in  the  study  of  the  varying  methods  adopted 

N  177 


17S        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

by  the  different  sects  of  Cliristians,  and  the  conclusions 
that  I  have  arrived  at  regarding  them  have  been 
made,  I  can  honestly  say,  with  a  fair  mind,  unpreju- 
diced by  the  religious  claims  of  any  one  sect  over  that 
of  another. 

The  Catholics,  as  I  have  already  said,  devote  their 
labours  almost  entirely  to  lay  teaching ;  they  teach 
the  native  to  till  and  work  the  land,  to  build,  and 
they  instruct  them  generally  in  the  methods  of 
organised  labour.  The  question  of  actual  religion  is 
left  to  a  future  generation,  when  the  minds  of  the 
people  will  be  more  receptive  ;  when  they  will  have  at 
least  attained  that  balance  of  thought  which  it  is 
necessary  to  give  to  the  subject,  if  their  religious  pro- 
fessions are  to  be  anything  more  than  a  mockery. 
Therefore,  I  say  that  the  presence  of  such  men  as  the 
CathoHc  missionaries  is  for  the  country's  good,  rather 
than  the  opposite.  They  are  accomplishing  slowly 
and  surely,  the  very  work  which  is  the  most  essential 
to  the  extended  civilisation  of  the  savages  with  whom 
they  have  to  deal.  They  have  never  been  known  to 
influence  the  native  of  the  Sudan  in  a  manner  which 
has  not  met  with  the  complete  approval  of  the 
Government.  Visit  one  of  the  Catholic  Mission 
camps  and  you  will  find  the  native  clean,  and  in  the 
cases  of  the  younger  members  of  the  tribe,  hard 
working.  The  appalling  conservatism  which  stands 
as  a  barrier  to  universal  labour  has  yet  to  be  broken 
down,  and  that  will  be  the  work  of  many  years.  But 
the  native  is  respectful — he  recognises  the  line  between 
the  white  man  and  the  black  ;    he  is,  in  fact,  a  con- 


MISSIONARIES   AND    OTHERS         179 

tented  savage,  on  the  borderland  of  a  new  knowledge 
which  leads  to  civilisation. 

Of  the  work  of  the  Church  of  England  I  cannot 
speak  with  the  same  authority,  for  it  was  only  during 
the  latter  year  of  my  tenure  in  the  Sudan  that  her 
emissaries  came  out  to  work  in  the  really  wild  parts  of 
the  country,  where  they  had  the  barren  soil  of  com- 
plete ignorance  to  work  upon.  Hitherto,  the  only 
Church  of  England  clergymen  who  had  been  in  the 
country  as  residents  had  very  rightly  remained  at 
Khartoum.  The  only  incident  relating  to  the  teach- 
ing of  these  clergymen  that  I  can  speak  of,  is  one 
which  it  is  perhaps  hardly  fair  to  quote,  and  I  do  so 
with  all  reserve,  leaving  my  readers  to  decide  whether 
it  was  due  to  teaching  or  to  coincidence.  I  was  at 
one  time  without  a  cook  as  I  was  leaving  Khartoum 
for  the  south ;  my  own  cook  having  cut  his  hand  to 
the  bone  with  a  broken  bottle,  was  obliged  to  remain 
for  treatment  in  the  hospital.  The  clergyman  who 
was  at  that  time  in  Khartoum  met  me  in  the  morning, 
and  very  kindly  volunteered  to  find  me  a  boy  before 
the  boat  started,  saying  that  if  he  could  not  find  any- 
one else,  he  would  send  one  of  his  own  servants  with 
me  for  the  trip,  which  was  to  be  a  comparatively 
short  one. 

In  the  end,  one  of  his  own  servants  turned  up  at 
the  boat,  and  I  must  admit  that  I  disliked  him  from 
the  first  moment  that  I  set  eyes  upon  him.  He  was 
one  of  the  Uriah  Heep  class,  and  was  constantly  doing 
things  which  set  my  nerves  on  edge.  If  I  reproved 
him,  which,  by  the  way,  1  had  occasion  to  do  the  first 


180        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

day  that  he  was  on  board,  he  looked  at  me  with  the 
air  of  an  injured  martyr  ;  if  I  reproved  him  more 
strongly  still,  he  turned  away  to  hide  the  tears  that 
sprang  into  his  eyes.  He  would  never  explain  any- 
thing ;  he  left  it  all  to  his  facial  expression.  I  had 
been  in  the  Sudan  quite  long  enough  to  know  the 
elements  of  housekeeping,  at  least  I  knew  to  a  pound 
or  two  how  much  tea  I  should  consume  in  a  week  ; 
but  the  stores  diminished  before  my  eyes,  and  when 
I  questioned  this  beauty,  he  would  weep  and  turn 
away  in  silence,  bearing  my  most  un-Christian  re- 
proaches without  a  word.  At  length  I  found  that  he 
was  charging  me  at  the  rate  of  one  sheep  a  day  for 
meat,  and  then  my  patience  forsook  me.  I  took  him 
by  the  scruff  of  the  neck  and  shook  him  till  he  spoke. 
He  lied  at  first,  of  course,  but  eventually  I  got  the 
truth  :  he  was  selling  my  stuff  with  the  greatest 
calmness  to  wicked  members  of  the  crew  who  were 
tempting  him.  I  put  him  ashore  to  work  with  a 
Government  fatigue  party  till  I  returned. 

Now  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  his  training  must 
have  been  at  least  partially  responsible  for  his 
acknowledged  knavery.  A  native  once  informing  his 
master  of  wholesale  thievery  which  was  going  on 
among  his  staff  of  servants,  apologised  for  having 
mentioned  it,  but,  he  said,  he  felt  that  the  case 
deserved  special  mention — "'  little,  little,  custom,  but 
this  bad  work."  And  so  I  thought  of  him,  "  little, 
little  "  was  all  very  well,  but  whole  sheep  at  a  time 
was  rather  too  much  of  a  good  thing.  I  would  not 
have  minded  so  much  had  he  brazened  it  out  like  any 


MISSIONARIES   AND   OTHERS         181 

other  thief  in  the  country,  but  I  could  not  stand  the 
air  of  injured  innocence  that  he  met  all  my  accusa- 
tions with.    I  felt  like  a  sinner  accusing  a  saint. 

That  is  the  one  and  only  thing  that  I  can  say  about 
the  Church  of  England  and  its  treatment  of  the 
natives  ;  for  their  work  among  the  English  Tommies 
they  cannot  be  too  highly  praised  ;  everyone  loved 
the  clergyman — he  was  a  thoroughly  good  sort.  He 
was  a  Christian  with  all  the  elements  of  humanity  in 
him,  and  that  put  everyone  on  a  footing  of  ease  with 
him  at  once. 

The  only  other  sect  that  I  had  any  opportunities 
of  watching  was  the  American  Mission,  which  had 
a  station  on  the  River  Sobat.  Now  let  me  hasten  to 
say  that  I  have  the  very  greatest  personal  admiration 
for  the  members  of  this  mission  whom  I  met  during 
my  sojourn  in  the  Sudan ;  they  are  self-sacrificing 
men  and  women,  striving  year  after  year  for  the 
cause  of  Christianity  in  the  manner  which  they  con- 
sider to  be  right.  I  admire  them  personally,  and,  of 
course,  I  admit  the  height  and  purity  of  their  aims ; 
but  I  entirely  and  absolutely  disagree  with  their 
methods  of  attaining  them.  In  my  opinion  they  go 
to  work  in  the  wrong  way ;  in  a  way  which  is  not 
only  calculated  to  be  useless  for  the  attainment  of 
the  very  ends  that  they  are  in  the  Sudan  to  secure, 
but  which  is  also  to  a  certain  extent  dangerous  to  the 
country.  The  manner  in  which  they  spoil  the  natives 
is  likely  to  render  the  task  of  the  Government,  in 
securing  the  unanimous  and  willing  submission  of  all 
the  tribes  of  the  Sudan,  more  difiicult  than  it  natu- 


182        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

rally  is  already.  To  question  these  methods  is,  I  know, 
to  open  up  the  vexed  controversies  of  centuries  re- 
garding the  brotherhood  of  Christianity,  the  brother- 
hood of  the  white  man  to  the  black.  I  do  so  because 
I  think  that  it  is  justified ;  the  preference  extended 
to  the  black  man  here  in  contrary  distinction  to  the 
treatment  which  he  receives  at  the  hands  of  the 
Catholic  missionaries  in  the  same  country,  is  emi- 
nently unfair  to  all  concerned,  and,  most  of  all,  to  the 
deluded  native  who  is  being  gradually  trained  to  the 
belief  that  he  ranks  on  an  equahty  with  the  white 
man  ;  more,  that  he  is  entitled  to  privileges  such  as 
the  white  man  cannot  obtain.  The  long  and  the 
short  of  it  is  that  they  are  spoiling  the  native,  and 
this  is  in  my  opinion  little  less  than  criminal,  and  I 
cannot  understand  the  apathy  of  the  Government 
which  permits  it.  I  have  visited  the  Sobat  River 
Mission  Station  with  ladies,  and  we  had  to  enter  the 
house  of  the  missionaries  over  the  prostrate  bodies 
of  stark  naked  natives  who  were  lying  on  the  step, 
and  who  might  not  be  disturbed  or  awakened.  I 
have  sat  at  the  table  inside  the  house,  with  a  row  of 
black  heads  straining  in  to  watch  what  was  going  on  ; 
and  I  have  listened  to  the  eulogies  of  the  mistaken 
hosts,  who  pointed  to  the  spectators  with  pride  as 
examples  of  the  trust  and  confidence  with  which  they 
regarded  their  tutors. 

What  do  they  expect  to  make  out  of  a  savage  race 
like  this,  if  they  deUberately  spoil  them  at  the  very 
beginning  ?  When  do  they  propose  to  attempt  to 
imbue  them  with  the  respect  which  is  due  to  a  white 


MISSIONARIES   AND    OTHERS         183 

woman,  if  not  to  a  white  man  ?  There  are  women  in 
the  Sobat  Mission  Station,  brave  American  women, 
who  are  consecrating  their  lives  to  the  service  of  their 
religion,  ministering  to  the  deluded  blacks  of  Central 
Africa ;  is  it  not  a  burning  shame  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  waste  their  energies  in  this  manner,  when 
two  words  from  the  Government  would  in  all  prob- 
ability serve  to  turn  their  endeavours  into  practical 
channels  which  would  be  of  use  in  the  history  of  the 
country  ?  The  whole  system  is  wrong ;  but  it  will 
be  allowed  to  drift  on,  until  the  time  that  the  pupils 
are  brought  to  such  a  degree  of  self-satisfaction  that 
they  will  become  a  danger  to  the  country.  Then  the 
brake  will  be  put  on,  and  the  whole  thing  pronounced 
a  failure. 

Little  good  is  being  done  to  the  natives  who  come 
under  the  influence  of  this  mission,  while  a  great 
deal  of  harm  is  being  accomplished.  Another  great 
mistake  which  these  people  have  made,  if,  as  is  pre- 
sumably the  case,  it  is  their  intention  to  train  the 
natives  as  useful  members  of  society,  is  that  of  having 
imported  wooden  buildings  from  the  States  or  else- 
where, instead  of  putting  the  black  man  to  work 
at  brick-making,  and  running  up  decent  dwellings 
for  themselves.  When  last  I  visited  the  station,  the 
first  consignment  of  what  was  I  believe  to  be  ulti- 
mately used  as  a  school  had  just  arrived,  and  was 
being  got  ready  for  erection.  One  could  not  but 
regret  the  waste  of  money  which  had  gone  to  the 
purchase  of  such  an  elaborate  building  as  this  was 
evidently  to  be ;    the  more  so  as  by  the  erection  of 


1S4        VWV:    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

brick  houses  they  would  be  giving  employment  to 
the  natives,  an  experience  which  they  might  turn 
to  their  advantage  at  a  later  period  of  their  pupilage. 
Also,  one  would  imagine  that  a  well-built  house  of 
brick  would  be  far  more  suitable  to  the  climate  than 
one  of  wood,  to  say  nothing  of  the  absurdity  of  bring- 
ing it  thousands  of  miles  across  the  water,  and  then 
thousands  of  miles  up-country.  It  would  be  sensible 
to  every  change  of  climate,  and  would  be  also  liable 
to  warp  under  the  differing  influences  of  tropical  sun- 
shine and  torrential  rains.  It  is  sad  at  any  time  to 
see  energy  misdirected,  and  I  consider  that  it  was  a 
most  pitiful  sight  to  see  those  men  and  women,  who 
had  been  willing  and  ready  to  give  up  their  lives  to  the 
service  of  the  black  man,  undergoing  all  the  discom- 
forts and  dangers  of  the  climate  under  conditions  that 
would  benefit  no  one,  least  of  all  the  people  for  whose 
good  they  had  come  to  the  country  in  the  beginning. 
In  Lower  Egypt  the  good  which  this  mission  has 
accomplished  is  incalculable,  but  they  are  dealing 
with  a  different  sort  of  people  there  ;  the  pioneer  of 
civilisation  has  already  done  his  work,  and  it  only 
remains  to  those  who  follow  to  enlarge  and  extend 
the  sphere  of  knowledge.  But  to  place  a  school  in 
the  heart  of  savagery,  and  expect  a  lasting  good  to 
come  of  any  efforts  in  the  way  of  book-learning,  when 
the  people  who  are  being  taught  are  ignorant  of  the 
first  rudiments  of  civilisation,  is  to  expect  too  much. 
It  is  also  absurd  to  treat  the  raw  savage  with  the 
same  consideration  which  would  be  accorded  to  the 
white  man,  and  then  expect  him  not  to  be  spoilt. 


MISSIONARIES   AND   OTHERS         185 

It  must  not,  however,  be  thought  that  this  ten- 
dency to  spoil  the  natives  lies  with  the  American  only  ; 
the  greater  blame  rests  with  the  Government  which 
permits  such  hopeless  mistakes  to  be  committed  before 
its  eyes.  But  the  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  the 
Government  of  the  Sudan,  in  common  with  most  of 
the  other  Governments  of  the  world,  has  a  wholesome 
dread  of  exciting  public  opinion  on  a  subject  like  this. 
They  know  that  a  mistake,  a  grievous  mistake,  is 
being  made  ;  but  they  have  not  the  courage  to  put  a 
stop  to  it,  lest  the  charge  of  inhumanity  be  levied 
against  them.  It  is  always  the  same  in  cases  of  a 
similar  nature  to  this.  English  men,  or  what  is  yet 
more  terrible,  English  women,  come  out  to  the  East 
to  travel,  and  incidentally  to  put  the  English  Govern- 
ment right  at  any  point  where  it  may  happen  to  be 
tripping.  One  fine  morning,  when  by  all  the  natural 
laws  of  decency  they  should  be  still  in  bed  and  asleep, 
they  take  it  into  their  heads  to  go  for  an  early  stroll, 
and  happen  across  a  black  man  receiving  a  well- 
deserved  flogging.  Then  the  fun  begins :  "all 
Europe  shall  hear  of  how  the  Englishman  acts 
abroad,"  and  so  on  ad  nauseam.  Eventually,  to  still 
the  atmosphere,  the  Government  dispatches  an 
emissary  of  peace ;  some  man  possessed  of  more  than 
a  human  share  of  tact  and  patience,  and  the  troubled 
waters  are  smoothed.  He  listens  to  the  tale  of  horror 
with  seeming  indignation,  "  an  inquiry  shall  be  im- 
mediately opened,"  etc.,  and  the  ruffled  tourist  re- 
gains his,  or  her,  composure.    The  incident  is  closed. 

Now  the  Government  knows,  and  the  patient  man 


186        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

who  has  been  deputed  to  lie  to  the  incensed  Britisher 
knows,  that  such  a  thing  is  necessary,  they  know 
that  flogging  is  a  part  of  the  ancient  code  which  can- 
not be  done  away  with  with  impunity ;  they  know 
that  the  man  upon  whom  the  indignity  has  been 
imposed,  suffers  but  an  infinitesimal  part  of  the  feel- 
ing, either  mental  or  physical,  which  would  over- 
whelm the  white  man  under  similar  circumstances  ; 
in  fact,  they  know  what  they  are  doing  and  know  that 
the  doing  of  it  is  right.  And  yet  to  pander  to  the  senti- 
ment of  an  untravelled,  ignorant  atom  of  the  British 
Empire,  they  will  sacrifice  their  own  self-esteem  to 
the  extent  of  resorting  to  the  telling  of  deliberate 
lies  on  the  subject.  Things  have  come  to  a  pretty 
pass,  when  the  chosen  men  of  England  have  perforce 
to  listen  to  the  advice  of  any  gentleman  who  chooses 
to  procure  a  Cook's  circular  ticket,  and  wander  over 
the  face  of  the  globe  teaching  legislators  and  ofi&cers 
their  duty. 

At  a  fantasia  in  the  Sudan  I  have  myself  seen  the 
part  that  a  young  man  plays  of  his  own  free  will,  in 
order  to  obtain  the  title  of  Ackou  Binat  (the  brother 
of  the  girls).  This  ceremony  would  turn  the  reformer's 
hair  grey.  The  men  and  the  women  of  a  village  sit 
round  in  a  circle,  leaving  a  space  in  the  centre  of  some 
six  yards  in  diameter.  I  describe  it  as  I  saw  it  myself. 
The  strongest  man  of  the  village  is  then  picked  out  of 
the  crowd,  and,  armed  with  a  whip  of  rhinoceros 
hide,  he  and  the  young  man  who  is  to  strive  for  the 
title,  enter  the  arena.  The  women  beat  their  drums, 
and  the  men  clap  their  hands  to  the  tmie.    The  candi- 


MISSIONARIES   AND    OTHERS  187 

date  for  honour  is  stripped  to  the  waist ;  he  stands 
with  his  arms  folded  in  the  centre  of  the  ring,  and 
the  strong  man  dances  up  to  him  to  the  tune  which  is 
being  played.  He  brings  the  whip  round  with  all 
the  force  of  which  he  is  possessed  and  lands  it  on  the 
bare  back  of  the  man  in  front  of  him.  He  dances 
away,  again  he  advances,  and  the  operation  is  re- 
peated. This  goes  on  until  the  number  of  strokes 
previously  agreed  upon  have  been  dealt ;  in  the  par- 
ticular case  that  I  saw  it  was  twenty-five.  If  the  man 
who  is  being  flogged  winces,  if  he  so  much  as  moves 
an  eyelid  as  the  whip  descends,  he  is  disqualified  and 
branded  as  a  coward,  until  such  time  as  he  may  choose 
to  undergo  the  operation  a  second  time.  On  this  par- 
ticular occasion  he  went  through  with  it  like  a  Trojan  ; 
indeed,  the  man  who  was  delivering  the  blows  got 
tired  first,  and  the  last  three  cuts  of  the  twenty-five 
were  unsteady,  and  flickered  round  the  ear  and  neck 
of  the  "  brother."  I  leave  my  readers  to  imagine  the 
state  of  his  back  when  all  was  over  ;  but  he  appeared 
to  be  as  happy  as  a  king,  and  certainly  he  was  accorded 
a  great  ovation  by  the  assembled  crowd  of  women. 
His  bravery  and  manliness  was  established  for  ever- 
more ! 

And  it  is  the  men  that  can  go  through  such  ordeals 
for  the  sake  of  a  more  or  less  empty  title  that  we  are 
warned  we  must  not  touch  for  fear  of  hurting  them. 
I  do  not  advocate  flogging  unless  it  is  necessary,  but 
I  maintain  that  there  are  times  when  it  is  necessary, 
and  whereas  by  flogging,  punishment  is  being  in- 
flicted upon  the  man  who  deserves  it  alone  ;    if  you 


188        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

resort  to  fining  and  other  methods  of  touching  a  man 
through  his  pocket,  it  is  likely  that  his  family  will 
sufier  to  an  equal  extent  with  himself.  The  necessity 
for  this  form  of  punishment  will  gradually  die  out  in 
this  country  as  it  has  elsewhere ;  but  it  must  die 
without  undue  haste,  all  the  circumstances  attending 
it  must  be  duly  considered  before  conclusions  are 
arrived  at.  I  remember  one  case  particularly  where 
this  method  of  punishment  was  particularly  effi- 
cacious. It  was  in  the  later  days,  when,  at  times,  the 
laxity  of  the  British  rule  as  apphed  to  the  Sudanese 
in  certain  districts  by  some  of  the  officers  of  the 
Government  was  beginning  to  make  itself  shown  in 
a  regrettable  manner.  It  must  be  understood  that 
no  civihan  is  entitled  by  law  to  order  a  man  to  be 
flogged  unless  he  is  vested  with  particular  power,  or 
unless  he  is  a  magistrate.  I  was  at  a  wood  station 
and  was  very  much  pressed  for  time,  but  the  men 
were  in  a  lazy  mood  and  I  could  get  them  to  work 
no  quicker.  One  man  in  particular  gave  me  a  great 
amount  of  trouble,  and  eventually  I  sent  word  that 
his  pay  would  be  cut.  He  laughed  in  the  face  of  my 
emissary ;  pay-day  was  a  long  way  hence.  After 
some  time  I  went  to  him  myself,  and  stood  watching 
him  slacking.  He  stopped  as  he  was  passing  me,  and 
grinned  insolently.  Then  I  took  the  law  into  my  own 
hands.  I  sent  for  the  sergeant  of  the  Artillery,  and 
ordered  him  to  give  the  culprit  twenty-five  lashes, 
going  on  deck  myself  to  see  that  the  punishment  was 
carried  out  as  it  should  be,  and  with  no  half  measures. 
The  result  was  good ;    I  descended  to  an  altered 


MISSIONARIES   AND   OTHERS         189 

party  of  men — they  were  working  as  hard  as  they 
knew  how.  Later,  I  heard  the  sequel.  They  waited 
until  the  next  time  the  Mudir's  boat  hove  in  sight. 
The  Mudir  of  this  province  certainly  erred  on  the 
side  of  leniency,  and  they  went  in  a  body  and  com- 
plained. Unfortunately  for  them  the  Mudir  himself 
had  gone  north  on  leave,  and  his  deputy  only  was  on 
board.  He  heard  the  evidence,  and  then  gave  the 
sheikh  of  the  party  ten  lashes  for  having  allowed  such 
a  thing  as  the  flogging  of  one  of  his  men  to  be  neces- 
sary ! 

Now,  though  our  thin-skinned  humanitarian  friends 
will  not  see  it,  the  refusal  of  a  man  to  work,  and  his 
offering  insolence  to  his  master  in  a  country  like  the 
Sudan,  is  very  different  to  a  similar  happening  at 
home.  Popular  opinion,  or  rather  popular  feeling, 
moves  quickly  in  a  country  where  the  workmen  are 
still  little  more  than  savages  ;  there  is  not  only  a  loss 
of  dignity  involved  in  knuckling  under  to  a  recalci- 
trant black  man,  there  is  a  danger  of  life,  a  danger 
to  the  Empire  also,  lurking  behind  an  incident  which 
would  at  home  be  looked  upon  as  a  simple  thing  not 
worth  a  moment's  thought. 

We  have  our  own  code  of  morals  at  the  present 
day  in  England,  and  among  other  things  it  is  con- 
sidered wrong  to  inflict  corporal  punishment  upon 
our  fellows.  This  is  all  very  well  up  to  a  certain  point, 
after  that  point  it  becomes  ridiculous.  There  is  a 
tremendous  outcry  in  these  days  if  a  refractory 
schoolboy  is  caned ;  people  say  that  it  tends  to  de- 
grade him  in  after-life.    It  may  be  so,  but  personally 


190        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

I  cannot  see  that  the  present  generation,  brought  up 
under  the  regime  which  tends  to  make  women  of  our 
boys,  has  created  a  finer  race  than  that  which  fought 
at  Waterloo  or  Trafalgar. 

The  whole  tendency  of  modern  training  is  opposed 
to  corporal  punishment  of  any  kind  or  description ; 
but  if  we  are  to  ruin  our  own  country's  future  by  the 
training  of  our  sons  to  a  pampered  and  unwholesome 
existence,  that  is  no  reason  why  we  should  also  at- 
tempt to  destroy  the  native  principles  of  law  which 
are  the  only  ones  by  which  we  can  successfully  cope 
with  the  Sudanese.  Truly  the  prospect  of  England 
is  not  particularly  bright ;  at  the  present  time  we 
are  but  in  the  youth  of  this  new  code  of  effeminate 
upbringing  for  our  boys  ;  but  who  can  picture  the 
future  when,  by  constant  training,  Englishmen  will 
look  with  abhorrence  at  a  closed  fist,  and  pale  at  the 
thought  of  bloodshed  ?  The  South  African  War 
brought  a  great  many  truths  to  light,  and  the  number 
of  ■■  Little  Englanders  "  who  craved  for  peace  at  any 
price  was  astonishing.  The  self-satisfied  can  say  what 
they  like,  Kipling  struck  the  note  of  truth  when  he 
wrote  the  "  Islanders,"  and  he  has  gone  deeper  still 
in  his  appeal  to  a  jaded  nation  with  the  pubHcation 
of  the  "  City  of  Brass."  Thank  God  we  still  have 
some  of  the  British  spirit  left ;  there  were  innumer- 
able instances  of  heroic  bravery  and  staunch  un- 
flinching pluck  in  South  Africa  ;  they  were  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception,  but — 

"...  Your  strong  men  cheered  in  their  millions 
While  your  striplings  went  to  the  war." 


MISSIONARIES   AND   OTHERS         191 

Was  there  no  truth  in  that  ?  Thousands  of  our 
strongest  men  went  out  to  act  the  part  of  spectators 
while  paid  men  kicked  a  ball  about  a  field  during  the 
darkest  days  of  our  South  African  history  ;  then  they 
made  a  bear-garden  of  London,  as,  half-intoxicated, 
they  paraded  the  streets,  yelling  of  the  glory  of  Eng- 
land when  we  succeeded  in  holding  a  small  post  from 
defeat. 

Sport  is  the  mainstay  of  Britain ;  but  sport  does 
not  consist  in  going  week  after  week  to  see  paid  men 
perform,  and  the  man  who  cheers  the  loudest  has,  in 
all  probability,  never  stretched  his  muscles  in  honest 
exercise  himself ;  his  sport  (sic)  consists  in  watching 
the  game  and  reading  an  account  of  it  in  the  daily 
papers  the  following  morning.  This  is,  perhaps,  a 
digression  from  my  original  subject,  but  it  all  tends 
in  the  same  direction ;  it  is  the  general  attitude  of 
the  new  generation,  and  it  constitutes  England's 
greatest  danger. 

To  return  to  the  subject  of  missionaries  ;  it  will,  I 
think,  be  seen  from  what  I  have  written  that  though 
it  is  manifestly  unfair  to  include  them  all  in  one 
sweeping  condemnation,  they  very  often  do  plant 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  efficient  treatment  of 
newly  reclaimed  countries  ;  but  this  could  be  ren- 
dered to  a  great  extent  harmless  if  their  presence  in 
the  country  was  subject  to  the  direction  of  the 
Government,  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  form.  No  good  is 
done  by  the  strange  reluctance  of  the  governing 
powers  in  the  Sudan  to  exercise  their  undoubted 
right  of  checking  this  spoiling  of  the  natives ;    it  is 


192        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

cruel  alike  to  the  missionaries  and  to  the  natives 
themselves.  The  first  thing  to  be  done  is  to  civilise, 
and  as  long  as  this  can  be  done  without  giving  the 
natives  an  undue  sense  of  their  own  importance,  a 
great  and  lasting  good  will  be  accomplished  by  the 
organisation  or  individual  who  can  compass  it.  But 
it  must  be  always  borne  in  mind  that  the  people  to 
be  dealt  with  are  children  in  some  things,  and  men 
with  the  guile  of  men  in  others,  and  should  be  treated 
accordingly. 

Each  time  that  I  revisited  Khartoum  after  an 
absence  up-river,  a  change  was  noticeable  ;  not  only 
was  the  work  of  the  English  progressing  in  the  way  of 
house  construction  and  the  laying  out  of  streets, 
but  in  the  natives  themselves  an  indescribable  change 
was  increasingly  evident.  It  was  obvious  that  they 
were  becoming  more  civilised,  but  it  was  impossible 
to  define  in  what  manner.  It  was  not  only  that  there 
were  more  of  them  dressed  in  smarter  clothes,  this 
was  the  least  noticeable  feature ;  they  had  assimi- 
lated the  atmosphere  of  civilisation  in  some  extra- 
ordinary way  ;  an  atmosphere  that  was  everywhere 
visible  while  yet  not  being  conspicuous.  The  traders 
and  workmen  in  the  markets  were  rejoicing  in 
renewed  prosperity  ;  but  alas  !  the  price  of  curios 
was  steadily  on  the  increase.  In  the  town  itself  the 
change  was  very  noticeable  ;  the  gardens  beyond 
which  the  Grand  Hotel  now  stands  were  then  being 
laid  out,  and  a  few  animals  had  been  procured  for 
the  foundation  of  a  zoological  garden ;  the  trees 
which  had  been  planted  on  either  side  of  the  streets 


MISSIONARIES   AND   OTHERS         193 

were  springing  up  with  marvellous  rapidity,  and  the 
whole  place  was  assuming  an  entirely  different  aspect 
to  that  which  it  had  held  the  day  when  I  first  saw  it. 
The  Palace,  which  was  formerly  bare-fronted  to  the 
ground,  was  now  graced  by  a  verandah,  and  the 
space  in  front  of  the  War  Office  had  been  cleared 
and  made  an  imposing  parade-ground. 

In  connection  with  the  verandah  at  the  Palace 
comes  the  recollection  of  the  Public  Works  Depart- 
ment as  it  was  in  those  days.  This  Department, 
known  as  the  Department  of  Works,  was  responsible 
for  more  blunders  than  all  the  other  departments  of 
the  Government  put  together.  The  verandah  of  the 
Palace,  successfully  completed  at  last,  was,  through 
some  error  of  miscalculation,  in  danger  of  collapsing 
altogether  while  still  in  the  course  of  construction, 
and  was  propped  up  for  some  time  with  iron  girders. 
The  building  of  the  Department  itself  was,  even  at 
the  time  of  my  departure,  stayed  up  with  huge  baulks 
of  timber,  in  order  to  prevent  it  from  falling  on  to 
the  house  next  to  it.  This  house  was,  by  an  irony  of 
fate,  the  residence  of  the  Director  of  Works.  The 
much-talked-of  sea-wall  will,  as  long  as  it  stands,  be 
a  monument  of  incompetence  to  those  who  were 
responsible  for  its  erection. 

It  is  not  possible  to  blame  individuals  in  these 
instances,  since  the  men  in  whose  hands  the  work 
was  laid  were  not  men  whom  one  would  expect  to 
carry  through  such  big  works  as  this ;  they  lacked 
not  only  experience,  but  actual  training,  and  once 
more  the  fault  must  be  allocated  to  the  Government 


191        FIVE   YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

for  persisting  in  tlieir  appointment  to  positions  which 
they  were  unable  to  fill  with  credit.  The  master- 
tailor  of  a  regiment  is  trained  to  clothe  the  men,  and 
he  does  it  efficiently  and  well,  but  where  is  the  officer 
who  would  depute  him  to  build  him  a  Court  dress  for 
a  Buckingham  Palace  levee  ?  Thus  an  officer  of  the 
Royal  Engineers,  though  he  is  trained  to  throw  a 
temporary  bridge  across  a  river,  or  to  design  sufficient 
shelters  for  his  men  in  time  of  necessity,  emphatically 
is  not  trained  to  undertake  large  works  of  building 
design  and  construction,  and  it  is  not  fair  to  give  him 
this  work  to  do,  and  then  blame  him  when  he  fails. 
The  sea-wall  at  Khartoum,  for  instance,  was  by  no 
means  a  small  job.  The  current  of  the  Blue  Nile  in 
flood  is  tremendous,  and  in  addition  to  this  there  are 
so  many  geological  questions  regarding  foundations 
to  be  considered,  that  it  would  be  regarded  as  a  big 
job  by  some  of  the  well-known  firms  of  Westminster. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  we  find  officers  of  the  Royal 
Engineers  placed  in  charge  of  its  construction,  and 
we  wonder  when  there  are  signs  of  insufficient  founda- 
tions, evident  in  a  cracked  wall,  before  it  has  been 
completed  a  year.  Taking  all  the  circumstances  into 
consideration,  the  Government  is  fortunate  in  that 
a  wall  remained  at  all  after  the  first  flood ;  and 
though  it  is  a  pity  that  the  work  was  not  entrusted 
in  the  first  place  to  the  hands  of  experts,  the  men  who 
are  responsible  for  it  as  it  stands,  are  distinctly  to  be 
congratulated  upon  having  carried  through  the  work 
with  so  few  faults. 

There  have  been  many  attacks  made  upon  the 


MISSIONARIES   AND    OTHERS  195 

Government  for  having  retained  a  Military  adminis- 
tration so  long  ;  but  these  are  for  the  most  part  un- 
reasoning, and  for  the  greater  part  unjustified.  Far 
more  harm  would  be  Likely  to  accrue  to  the  country 
through  changes  being  wrought  with  too  great  a 
rapidity.  The  continuance  of  Military  administra- 
tion for  any  length  of  time  after  the  soldiers'  work  is 
actually  done,  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  there 
is  to  be  a  continuance  of  martial  law.  The  Govern- 
ment is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  Civil ;  but  at  the 
same  time,  the  strength  and  privileges  of  Military 
authorities  lie  ready  to  hand  for  immediate  applica- 
tion if  it  should  be  considered  necessary  to  exercise 
them,  and  any  particular  portion  of  the  Military  code 
can  be  applied  at  will.  The  disadvantage  of  the 
system  lies  in  the  fact  that  many  of  the  posts  are  held 
by  men  who  are,  in  the  strict  meaning  of  the  term, 
amateurs,  although  the  closest  examination  of  the 
records  of  the  Sudan  will,  I  think,  fail  to  reveal  a 
single  instance  where  an  abuse  of  power  has  been 
exercised,  or  more  than  technical  errors  committed. 
CiviHans  are  draughted  into  the  service  under  the 
supreme  control  of  the  Sirdar,  who  is  also  Governor- 
General  ;  these  civilians  will  gradually  replace  the 
soldier  in  the  administrative  and  other  positions  in 
the  Government.  In  the  above  remarks  I  am  ex- 
cluding the  subject  on  which  I  have  already  written 
at  some  length,  that  of  the  employment  of  officers  of 
the  Royal  Engineers  for  the  carrying  through  of 
works  for  which  they  were  obviously  and  naturally 
incompetent. 


11)0        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

With  the  question  of  the  continued  occupation  of 
the  dual  position  of  Governor-General  and  Sirdar 
by  one  man,  as  also  with  one  or  two  other  questions 
in  which  favouritism  has  undoubtedly  been  per- 
mitted to  enter  into  the  scheme  of  things,  I  will 
attempt  to  deal  later ;  but  I  maintain  that  taking 
it  upon  the  whole,  the  Sudan  is  a  bright  example  of 
the  capability  of  our  Army  officers  to  deal  with 
Administrative  and  other  matters  which  they  might 
be  well  excused  for  finding  difficult. 

In  one  respect,  the  Govermnent  has  been  gravely 
at  fault.  I  refer  to  the  marked  line  which  has  always 
been  drawn  between  the  Military  and  Civil  elements  ; 
not  socially,  but  in  the  manner  in  which  the  two 
elements  of  the  administration  have  been  presented 
to  the  native.  The  Sudanie  has  been  impressed  from 
the  beginning  with  a  sense  of  the  importance  and  the 
power  of  the  Military  man  ;  he  has  in  some  cases  been 
allowed  to  regard  the  civilian  official  as  a  secondary 
consideration,  which,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in  the 
course  of  time  it  will  lie  with  the  civilian,  and  with 
the  civilian  alone,  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the  country, 
is  hardly  fair  to  him.  The  difference  in  the  regard 
which  the  native  extends  to  a  man  in  uniform  and  a 
man  without,  is  very  marked ;  and  one  cannot  but 
think  that  it  would  have  been  wiser  to  make  the  white 
man  supreme  so  long  as  he  behaved  himself,  and  have 
let  the  native  know  at  the  outset  that  an  Enghsh- 
man,  no  matter  what  his  position,  was  entitled  to  an 
unqualified  respect.  In  isolated  cases  it  is  unfortu- 
nately true  that  the  officer  has  not  always  played  up 


MISSIONARIES   AND   OTHERS         197 

to  his  white  subordinate,  and  though  these  cases  are 
of  such  seldom  occurrence  as  to  make  it  almost  un- 
necessary to  mention  them,  the  moral  efiect  is  in- 
clined to  be  very  far-reaching,  and  it  is  calculated  to 
greatly  increase  the  difficulties  of  the  coming  regime 
of  civil  administration  unless  rigorous  impartiahty  is 
insisted  upon. 


CHAPTEK   X 

THE   COUNTRY   AND   ITS   SPORT — THE   BLUE   NILE 

THE  Blue  Nile,  unlike  the  White,  is  only  navi- 
gable for  about  half  its  course  in  the  Sudan, 
even  during  the  months  of  the  flood  ;  in  the  summer, 
transport  by  steamer  is  only  possible  as  far  as  Wad 
Medani,  the  rest  of  the  journey  has  to  be  made  by 
small  boats  or  by  land.  On  the  Blue  Nile,  from  the 
moment  that  Khartoum  is  left  behind,  the  journey  is 
as  different  to  that  of  the  White  as  the  sea  is  different 
to  the  land.  It  is  far  harder  to  realise  that  one  is  in 
the  Sudan  on  this  river  than  it  is  on  the  other ;  the 
stream  flows  with  greater  strength  and  fullness  than 
do  the  more  lazy  waters  of  the  White  Nile.  The 
scenery  is  entirely  different.  The  banks  are  high, 
and  even  while  still  within  a  few  miles  of  Khartoum 
there  is  a  suspicion  of  undulating  ground  on  either 
side  of  the  river.  Small  beehive-shaped  habitations 
he  clustered  among  the  trees  ;  there  is  no  swamp ; 
it  is  hke  a  scene  in  Europe,  with  the  exception  of  the 
huts.  The  larger  villages  are  also  quite  different  from 
anything  met  with  to  the  southern  side  of  the  Sudan. 
Kamhn,  which  has  recently  been  so  much  before 
the  public  by  reason  of  the  murder  of  Mr.  Scott- 
Moncrieff,  is  the  first  village  of  any  importance  south 

198 


THE    COUNTKY   AND   ITS   SPORT     199 

of  Khartoum.  The  village  is  not  very  large,  but  it  is 
a  picturesque  place,  and  the  surrounding  country  is 
pretty,  and  well  wooded.  Rufaa,  the  next  place, 
is  somewhat  similar ;  I  remember  it  principally  on 
account  of  the  beautiful-plumaged  birds  which  are 
to  be  seen  here  in  the  surrounding  forests.  They  are 
of  the  gorgeous  colouring  which  one  associates  with 
tropical  forestry.  There  are  a  few  gazelle  a  little  way 
inland,  but  these  are  all  of  the  commonest  species. 
Guinea-fowls  abound  in  hundreds,  and  there  are  also 
some  hare  to  be  seen  occasionally. 

On  my  first  trip  up  the  Blue  Nile  I  had  a  native 
harem  on  board,  a  mother  and  two  daughters.  They 
were  the  family  of  a  native  Bimbashi  (Major),  and  it 
was  curious  to  see  the  difierence  which  time  had 
wrought  in  the  education  of  the  Egyptian.  The 
mother,  a  portly  dame,  who  was  never,  of  course, 
visible  except  under  her  yashmak,  could  speak  no 
language  than  that  of  her  native  tongue,  Arabic.  Her 
eldest  daughter,  a  charming  girl  of  about  twenty, 
could  speak  French  fluently,  but  no  EngHsh ;  while 
the  youngest,  a  child  of  about  ten,  could  not  speak 
French,  but  could  chatter  away  in  almost  perfect 
English.  This  child  undertook  to  teach  me  Arabic, 
and  though  she  was  a  hard  taskmaster,  she  certainly 
taught  me  a  very  great  deal.  She  hated  to  see  me 
doing  anything  else,  and  would  set  me  three  pages  of 
nouns  to  learn  off  by  heart  at  a  time  ;  what  was  more, 
she  was  furious  if  I  did  not  learn  them  quickly,  or  if 
I  made  a  mistake  in  them  the  next  day. 

Egyptian  women  arc  supposed  to  be  entirely  subject 


200        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

to  their  nicankind,  but  in  this  case  the  positions  were 
certainly  reversed,  for  I  was  terrified  of  her. 

Wad  Medani,  the  chief  town  on  the  Blue  Nile,  is  a 
fine  place,  covering  a  large  tract  of  land  on  the  western 
bank.  At  the  time  of  my  visits  to  the  Blue  Nile  the 
whole  of  that  province  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
an  almost  ideal  Mudir  or  Governor,  Colonel  Gorringe, 
who,  it  will  be  remembered,  commanded  a  Flying 
Horse  squadron  in  South  Africa  during  the  late  war. 
In  some  ways,  perhaps,  he  exceeded  the  limit  of 
harshness  which  it  is  proper  for  a  white  man  to 
follow  in  his  dealings  with  the  black ;  but  it  is  im- 
possible to  compare  the  administration  of  a  man  like 
this,  with  that  of  one  who  is  constantly  spreading  the 
doctrine  of  all  men  being  equal,  without  seeing  the 
poisonous  fallacy  of  the  latter.  He  was  not  liked  by 
the  natives,  but  he  was  certainly  respected ;  they 
did  him  the  honour  of  considering  him  to  be  a  strong 
man,  and  there  is  no  greater  praise  than  that  from  a 
Sudanie.  During  the  command  of  Colonel  Gorringe, 
the  receipts  of  the  Blue  Nile  Province  were  increased 
by  almost  a  hundred  per  cent.  He  was  here,  there, 
and  everywhere,  always  on  duty,  and  entirely  just, 
if  harsh,  in  his  judgments. 

A  firm  of  private  enterprise  for  the  purpose  of 
corn-crushing  had  been  started  in  Wad  Medani  just 
before  I  arrived  there,  but  it  was  not  a  financial 
success,  and  it  was  closed  after  a  brief  life  of  some 
few  months. 

Nearly  all  the  houses  in  Wad  Medani  were  at  that 
time  built  of  mud  and  straw,  though  I  hear  that 


THE    COUNTRY   AND    ITS   SPORT       201 

several  brave  residences  of  brick  and  stone  have 
risen  since  those  days. 

From  Wad  Medani  south,  the  river  is  not  navigable 
except  for  the  smallest  craft  during  the  winter  months. 
The  bed  of  the  river  is  exceedingly  rocky,  and  there  is 
no  channel  of  sufficient  width  and  depth  to  float  a 
steamer.  A  gunboat  is,  therefore,  sent  up  to  Roseires 
regularly  during  the  last  week  of  flood,  and  is  stationed 
there  for  the  whole  of  the  low  Nile  season.  It  is  only 
removed  from  its  moorings  under  exceptional  circum- 
stances, but  remains  there  as  guardian  of  the  frontier. 

There  are  only  two  stations  of  any  real  importance 
between  Wad  Medani  and  Roseires :  Senaar  and 
Senga.  The  latter  station  is  the  head-quarters  of 
the  Mudir  during  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  and  it 
is  now  quite  a  flourishing  place.  Senga  also  marks 
the  borderland  of  the  shooting-district  in  the  Blue 
Nile  Province ;  there  is  no  game  other  than  gazelle  to 
be  got  further  north.  Elephant  are  sometimes  to  be 
seen  near  this  station,  but  only  very  occasionally. 

As  I  have  said,  the  banks  of  the  Blue  Nile  are  much 
higher  than  those  of  the  White  Nile,  and  the  outlook 
is  more  picturesque  in  every  way ;  huge  trees  and 
creeping  bines  are  to  be  found  in  the  forests  ;  it  is 
ideal  tropical  scenery.  Between  Senga  and  Roseires 
it  is  exceptionally  beautiful ;  the  river  curves  in  and 
out  among  high  banks  lined  with  forests,  and  as  you 
pass  it  is  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  leopards  and 
other  animals  drinking  at  the  foot  of  the  bank. 
Monkeys  are  plentiful  all  along  the  river  after  passing 
Wad  Medani.     Roseires  is,  at  first  sight,  somewhat 


202        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

disappointing  after  the  scenes  which  have  been  left 
behind.  The  town  stands  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
river,  and  is,  according  to  the  EngHsh  fashion,  very 
scattered.  The  British  Inspector's  quarters  stand  at 
the  summit  of  the  hill  on  which  the  town  was  built ; 
but  at  the  time  when  I  visited  the  place,  many  trees 
had  been  cut  down  and  it  looked  rather  bare.  But 
on  the  higher  banks,  as  well  as  upon  those  which  im- 
mediately border  the  Nile,  there  are  some  gigantic 
and  evidently  very  ancient  trees  still  standing, 
wood  for  fuel  and  other  purposes  being  almost 
exclusively  taken  from  the  smaller  growths.  When  I 
last  visited  it  the  town  was  small,  though  there  have 
been  numerous  additions  and  improvements  made 
since  that  time.  In  those  days,  there  were  an  average 
of  three  Englishmen  stationed  in  the  post — the  Com- 
mandant of  the  station,  an  Inspector,  and  an 
official  of  the  Slave  Trade  Repression  Department. 
This  Department,  under  the  inspectorship  of  Mr. 
Leonard  Gorringe,  did  an  infinite  amount  of  good 
almost  immediately  after  its  introduction.  Several 
parties  of  slave  -  dealers  were  captured,  and  the 
slaves  liberated.  I  recollect  one  party  particularly. 
A  notorious  dealer  in  human  cargo  was  reported  to  be 
moving  from  his  stronghold  in  the  mountains  with 
a  large  party  of  youths  and  maidens ;  the  officials  of 
the  Department  set  out  with  a  patrol  and  surprised 
him  as  he  was  crossing  the  Nile  from  the  east  to  the 
west  bank.  I  saw  the  whole  party  later ;  the  slave- 
dealers  were  shackled  and  were  working  in  the  garden 
of  the  Mudirieh,  while  the  released  slaves  mounted 


THE    COUNTRY   AND    ITS   SPOET     203 

guard  to  give  notice  of  any  attempt  at  escape.  The 
tables  had  been  turned  with  a  vengeance. 

Mr.  Gorringe  had,  at  the  time  of  my  departure, 
organised  a  series  of  stations  on  the  blockhouse 
system,  which  makes  it  extremely  difficult  for  slave- 
traders  to  escape  with  their  prey.  The  Department 
is  supplied  with  horses,  camels,  and  mules,  and  its 
officials  and  men,  under  their  energetic  leader,  are 
constantly  on  the  move  with  experienced  trackers,  so 
that  the  first  movement  of  a  party  of  dealers  is 
usually  known  to  the  Government  men  almost  as 
soon  as  it  has  been  made.  The  Department  is  work- 
ing in  a  similar  way  in  other  parts  of  the  Sudan,  and 
the  results  more  than  justify  the  expense  which  the 
vigilance  incurs.  The  larger  question  of  the  libera- 
tion of  slaves  who  were  the  property  of  their  owners 
at  the  time  when  the  Sudan  was  reconquered,  is  dealt 
with  later  in  this  book.  It  is,  in  its  way,  one  of  the 
most  important  of  the  questions  in  the  Sudan. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  river,  that  is  to  say,  on  the 
bank  opposite  to  Roseires,  the  river  is  bordered  by 
dense  forestry  for  some  miles  inland ;  and  for  many 
miles  after  the  thicker  growths  have  been  left  behind, 
trees  are  still  very  plentiful,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  are  for  many  months  in  the  year  absolutely 
without  water.  The  gunboat  on  which  I  served  at 
Roseires  was  stationed  immediately  opposite  the 
town  on  the  west  bank,  and  this  position  is,  I  believe, 
the  one  still  adopted  each  year  at  time  of  low  Nile. 
Should  a  rising  occur,  the  fact  of  having  a  fighting 
machine  of  this  description  ready  for  immediate  use 


204        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

would  tell  enormously  in  our  favour,  even  though 
it  would,  by  reason  of  the  low  water,  be  forced  to 
remain  in  practically  the  same  place. 

Beyond  Roseires,  to  the  south,  navigation  is  im- 
possible at  certain  points,  and  there  is  not  sufficient 
merchandise  to  justify  the  expense  of  the  extensive 
blasting  operations  which  would  be  required  in  order 
to  make  the  river  fit  for  traffic.  I  was  fortunate  in 
being  stationed  at  this  place  when  the  launch  destined 
to  meet  the  McMillan  expedition  from  the  south  came 
from  Khartoum.  The  expedition  was  ill-fated  and 
never  got  further  than  a  few  miles  off  Addis  Abbaba, 
the  boats  in  which  the  journey  was  to  be  made  smash- 
ing on  some  rocks  in  the  first  cataract.  The  launch 
I  speak  of  had  been  specially  imported  into  Egypt  for 
the  use  of  Mr.  McMillan,  and  was  to  meet  him  at 
a  point  some  miles  south  of  the  Sudanese  boundary 
in  Abyssinia.  When  it  arrived  at  Roseires,  the  en- 
gineer in  charge  very  kindly  asked  to  take  me,  with 
another  Enghshman,  over  the  first  cataract.  We  ac- 
cepted the  invitation,  and  for  my  own  part  I  re- 
gretted it  some  hundreds  of  times  during  the  few 
hours  that  the  expedition  took.  To  begin  with,  the 
launch  was  utterly  unfitted  for  the  purpose  required 
of  it ;  it  was  affected  by  the  slightest  current,  and, 
to  make  matters  worse,  the  steering-wheel  came 
loose  and  worked  itself  off  frequently,  with  the  result 
that  we  would  turn  and  charge  the  rocks.  How  the 
boat  escaped  destruction  I  can  never  imagine.  Time 
and  again  a  current  would  catch  it,  and  at  the  rate 
of  some  fifteen  miles  an  hour  we  would  advance 


THE    COUNTRY    AND    ITS    SPORT      205 

upon  the  rocks,  and  fancy  that  all  was  over.  Had 
one  been  precipitated  into  the  water,  there  would 
have  been  rather  a  poor  chance  of  saving  oneself,  for 
the  current  was  tremendous,  and  the  place  abounded 
with  crocodiles.  However,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  heavy  bumps  we  escaped  disaster  and  landed 
safely  on  the  south  side  of  the  cataract  at  four  o'clock. 

But  my  nerves  suffered  in  conse>juence,  and  shoot- 
ing a  couple  of  hours  later,  I  missed  a  standing  bush- 
buck  at  about  twenty  yards.  The  scenery  at  this 
point,  about  eight  miles  south  of  Roseires,  is  magnifi- 
cent ;  the  banks  are  very  high  and  clothed  with  trees 
and  creepers — it  is  the  most  tropical  spot  in  the  whole 
of  the  Sudan.  The  forestry  around  is  alive  with  game 
of  all  descriptions,  and  the  first  day  that  I  went  out 
shooting  I  saw  no  less  than  four  distinct  species  of 
antelope,  and  also  three  buffalo. 

There  is  no  question  but  that  this  district  offers 
infiritely  better  sport  than  do  the  plains  of  the  White 
Nile.  Game  is  not  perhaps  quite  as  plentiful,  and  it 
is  harder  to  get  at,  but  there  is  no  comparison  in  the 
sport  of  the  thing  ;  it  is  all  undulating  country,  and 
one  never  knows  on  ascending  to  the  summit  of  one 
rise  what  may  be  found  in  the  valley  at  the  other  side. 

Roseires  and  its  surrounding  district  is  to  me  the 
ideal  spot  of  the  Sudan.  Not  only  is  it  absolutely 
healthy  in  the  winter  months — from  October  until 
May — the  whole  country  is  magnificent ;  there  is 
an  endless  scenic  variety  which  is  supremely  attrac- 
tive after  the  flatter  regions  of  the  White  Nile.  During 
my  stay  at  this  station  I  walked  an  average  of  twelve 


20G        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

miles  daily.,  and  was  never  more  fit  in  the  Sudan. 
Close  to  where  my  ship  lay  the  forest  started ;  there 
was  a  sward  of  grass  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  wide 
along  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  then  one  plunged 
into  the  thicket  at  once. 

During  the  first  week  of  my  stay  there  I  was  given 
a  puppy,  an  Armunte,  the  Egyptian  sheep-dog,  which 
is  supposed  to  be  directly  descended  from  the  French 
sheep-dogs  which  were  imported  by  the  great  Napo- 
leon when  he  visited  the  country.  One  afternoon 
a  number  of  men  came  in  from  the  mountains  of 
Ghooly,  to  the  west,  and  the  chief  was  greatly  struck 
with  the  dog ;  then  at  last,  finding  that  I  was  not  going 
to  make  him  a  present  of  it,  he  started  making  me 
ofiers  of  exchange,  in  red  pepper.  Finally,  when  it 
came  to  half  a  ton  of  the  stuff,  I  had  to  tell  him  very 
forcibly  that  I  would  not  part  with  the  animal  for 
any  money,  and  so  got  rid  of  him.  Some  of  these 
men  were  exceedingly  fine  specimens  of  hunjanity. 
It  was  their  first  visit  to  the  Nile,  and  they  could  at 
first  scarcely  credit  the  sight  of  so  much  water  in  one 
place,  since  in  their  own  country  all  that  they  saw 
was  at  the  time  of  the  rains,  and  they  are  forced  to 
rely  upon  the  moisture  of  the  vegetation  in  their 
district  for  water  at  certain  times  of  the  year.  They 
took  the  keenest  interest  in  the  boat  and  its  comple- 
ment. Again  and  again  they  returned  to  the  telescope, 
after  having  once  succeeded  in  looking  through  it.  At 
first  it  was  a  matter  of  great  difficulty  to  induce  them 
to  try  ;  they  seemed  to  think  that  it  might  be  charged. 
Then,  when  their  doubts  in  this  direction  had  been  set 


THE    COUNTRY   AND    ITS    SPORT       207 

at  rest,  it  was  discovered  that  it  was  impossible  for 
them  to  shut  one  eye  at  a  time  ;  but  it  was  at  length 
accomplished  by  one  man  putting  his  hand  over  the 
eye  of  the  other  who  was  gazing  through  the  tele- 
scope, and  so  on  in  turn.  They  were  immensely  im- 
pressed, and  appeared  to  think  that  it  was  magic. 
Not  less  interested  were  they  when  one  of  their 
number  caught  sight  of  himself  in  a  looking-glass. 
He  was  terribly  frightened  for  a  moment  when  he 
realised  that  he  was  looking  at  himself,  and  after 
much  peering  and  ejaculation,  he  asked  who  it  was 
put  his  face  round  on  the  other  side  of  the  glass  to 
look  through  at  him !  It  was  most  amusing  on  such 
occasions  to  watch  the  contempt  of  the  more  en- 
lightened Sudanese  for  their  poor  uninformed  brothers, 
and  I  noticed  that  it  was  invariably  the  most  ignorant 
and  lazy  of  these,  who  made  the  most  sport  of  those 
who  had  not  had  the  same  advantages  of  education 
as  themselves. 

The  arrival  of  these  people  was  a  great  score  for  the 
authorities,  as  the  tribe  had  always  been  a  rebellious 
one,  which  had  refused  to  recognise  the  Government, 
and  their  Mek,  or  King,  had  always  steadfastly  refused 
to  pay  taxes,  or  to  allow  his  followers  to  assist  the 
Government  in  any  way.  He  had  come  in  at  last  with- 
out coercion,  and  has,  I  believe,  been  a  faithful  sup- 
porter of  ours  ever  since.  They  were  very  well 
treated  on  their  arrival,  and  everything  that  was 
considered  to  be  of  interest  was  shown  to  them,  not 
excluding  the  work  and  purpose  of  rifles  and  guns. 
Cases  such  as  these,  where  natives  come  in  of  their 


208        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

own  accord  and  subsequently  acknowledge  the  new 
regime,  are  of  very  great  value  to  the  Government,  as 
such  news  spreads  rapidly  through  the  country,  and 
has  a  good  effect  on  other  refractory  tribes. 

The  same  night  that  I  had  refused  the  offer  for  my 
dog,  I  was  going  to  bed  ;  we  had  then  built  a  straw 
house  on  the  bank  immediately  above  the  boat ;  the 
dog  was  sitting  in  the  verandah,  when  suddenly  it 
gave  three  short  barks  and  then  a  yelp.  I  rushed  out 
just  in  time  to  see  a  large  dark  shadow  disappearing 
into  the  wood,  and  the  dog  had  gone.  The  night  was 
black  and  stormy,  and  it  was  therefore  impossible  to 
do  anything  to  find  it.  In  the  morning  we  found 
the  tracks  of  a  huge  leopard  ;  it  had  come  right  under 
the  verandah  to  secure  its  prey,  and  had  then  only 
gone  about  a  hundred  yards  before  consuming  it. 
A  part  of  the  mask  was  all  we  found  of  my  unfortu- 
nate dog  ;  and  to  add  insult  to  injury,  we  found  that 
the  thief  had  descended,  again  through  the  verandah, 
to  the  river,  and  had  evidently  stood  on  the  ship's  gang- 
way while  he  slaked  his  thirst  after  his  meal.  I  think 
it  must  have  been  the  same  leopard  which  was  killed 
subsequently  by  some  natives  of  the  village  immedi- 
ately south  of  Roseires,  after  first  killing  one  man 
outright,  wounding  a  second  so  badly  that  he  died 
from  the  effect  of  his  wounds  shortly  afterwards,  and 
also  mauling  a  third  terribly,  though  the  latter  re- 
covered from  his  injuries  after  months  of  careful 
treatment.  It  came  about  in  this  way.  One  night 
a  leopard  boldly  penetrated  the  zareba  of  the  village, 
and  after  killing  half  a  dozen  sheep  made  off  with  the 


THE    COUNTRY   AND   ITS   SPORT     209 

finest  in  the  flock.    The  next  morning  the  women  of 
the  village  assembled  and  calling  the  men  together, 
taimted  them  with  cowardice.     "  Are  you  women 
or  are  you  men  ?  "  asked  the  spokeswoman  of  the 
assembled  tribe  ;   "  if  you  are  men  you  will  not  sleep 
until  the  leopard  which  has  robbed  our  flocks  is  dead  ; 
if  you  are  women  you  will  rest  at  home  at  ease." 
Stung  to  the  quick  by  the  taunt,  and  not  deigning  to 
call  upon  any  of  the  white  men  at  the  station,  three 
chosen  men  sallied  forth  to  revenge  the  theft  of  the 
night  before.     The  animal  was  easily  tracked  from 
the  camp,  and  the  men,  armed  with  spears,  followed 
the  spoor  at  last  into  a  sea  of  dried  grass  as  high  as 
themselves.    Once  or  twice  they  caught  glimpses  of 
the  retreating  animal,  and  at  last,  unable  to  go  further, 
heavy  as  it  was  with  stolen  meat,  it  waited  and  sprang 
upon  the   party   as   they   were   pushing   their  way 
through  some  particularly  troublesome  undergrowth. 
Unable  to  use  their  spears  with  any  freedom  on  ac- 
count of  the  tangle,  one  man  died  on  the  spot  before 
the  others  had  well  realised  what  had  happened,  and 
the  second  also  was  badly  mauled  before  the  third 
could  use  his  spear.    Eventually,  however,  he  got  a 
thrust  home,  a  thrust  ultimately  fatal  to  the  animal, 
but  not  sufficiently  severe  to  prevent  its  turning  and 
grappHng  with  him  for  some  moments  before  it  fell 
dead. 

I  offered  as  much  as  two  pounds  for  the  skin  of  the 
fallen  animal,  a  tremendous  sum  for  that  district  ; 
the  natives,  however,  refused  to  part  with  it,  and  I 
heard  afterwards  that  the  skin  had  been  cut  up  and 


210        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

(listribiitod    among    tlio    tribe   as   a   charm   against 
further  disaster. 

The  natives  themselves  are,  in  this  part,  fine  up- 
standing men,  and  keen  hunters.  They  live  almost 
entirely  on  the  game  which  falls  to  their  spears,  and 
they  are  the  most  wonderful  trackers  in  Africa.  I 
have  known  my  guide  to  follow  at  the  double  a 
track  which,  to  my  eyes,  was  invisible  without  a  close 
and  sustained  search  on  the  ground.  Girt  only  in  a 
loin-cloth  and  carrying  either  a  spear  or  a  stick,  they 
are  perfect  pictures  of  black  humanity  when  they 
start  forth  on  the  chase,  and  no  less  perfect  are  they 
when  the  day's  hunt  is  done  and  they  swing  back 
with  an  unaltered  gait  to  camp.  They  are  apparently 
tireless.  I  have  not  only  spent  long  days  shooting 
with  them,  but  have  also  hunted  on  horseback,  with 
the  men  following  on  foot,  and  I  have  never  seen  a 
man  really  wearied. 

The  administrative  powers  and  sternness  of  Colonel 
Gorringe's  rule  were  very  evident  here  ;  a  white  man 
was  a  white  man,  and  there  was  no  doubt  about  it. 
Indeed,  the  province  of  the  Blue  Nile  which  came 
under  his  sway  was  by  far  the  best  ordered  in  the 
Sudan  at  that  time.  Everywhere  one  went  the  whole 
village  would  turn  out  to  see  you  comfortably 
housed,  and  offerings  of  milk  and  eggs  were  in- 
variably made.  There  were  Government  rest-houses 
at  most  of  the  principal  villages,  though  it  was  a 
literal  Purgatory  to  stay  at  most  of  them  on  account 
of  the  noise.  Once  only  it  was  my  fate  to  do  so,  and 
that  was  when  being  suddenly  attacked  by  a  dose 


THE    COUNTRY   AND   ITS   SPORT      211 

of  fever,  while  out  shooting,  I  thought  it  injudicious 
to  remain  the  night  in  the  open  air,  and  made  for  the 
nearest  village.  The  rest-house  was  beautifully 
clean,  and  for  the  first  half-hour  I  thought  that  I  was 
in  luck's  way ;  then  night  fell,  and  the  people  went 
to  bed.  Gradually  the  various  soimds  of  the  night 
began  to  grow,  and  they  increased  in  volume  as  the 
hours  went  on.  First  of  all  every  dog  in  the  village 
started  barking,  and  there  were  many  dogs.  Then 
the  fowls  woke  up  and  joined  in  the  chorus,  and  occa- 
sionally a  child  would  wake  to  scream.  When  the 
hyenas  and  jackals  arrived  outside  the  zareba  the 
general  pandemonium  had  reached  its  height,  and 
for  the  rest  of  the  night  it  was  useless  to  attempt  to 
sleep.  Never  was  morning's  light  more  welcome  than 
it  was  upon  that  occasion  ;  but  as  I  woke  without  a 
trace  of  fever  the  night  had  not  been  spent  in  vain. 

The  whole  province  of  the  Blue  Nile  is  of  extra- 
ordinary fertility ;  anything  appears  to  grow  with 
the  minimum  of  trouble.  Potatoes  thrive  here,  and 
this  is  about  the  only  part  of  the  Sudan  where  they 
can  be  grown  with  any  degree  of  success.  Fruit  is 
not  plentiful ;  but  this  is,  I  think,  simply  because  it 
has  never  been  properly  tried.  There  are  a  few 
bananas,  but  that  is  all.  Gum  is  to  be  found  in  the 
forests,  but  it  is  not  in  saleable  quantities.  The 
natives  love  it,  and  every  man  on  a  long  day's  march 
keeps  a  constant  look  out  for  fresh  gum  to  chew.  I 
tasted  it,  but  I  cannot  say  that  the  result  was  pleasing. 

The  railway  which  is  at  present  being  constructed 
in  the  Blue  Nile  Province  does  not,  I  believe,  touch 


212        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

at  this  point ;  but  it  will  be  a  comparatively  easy 
matter  at  a  future  date  to  extend  it  to  meet  any 
demands  of  agricultural  or  other  need  which  may 
crop  up.  And  undoubtedly  the  province  is  one  which 
will  pay  extraordinarily  well  when  it  is  put  under 
agriculture.  The  needs  of  Egypt,  of  course,  come 
first  in  regard  to  the  annual  water  supply ;  but  the 
district  is  one  which,  I  believe,  would  be  almost  fully 
irrigated  by  its  natural  supply  of  rain.  Crops  such 
as  are  grown  in  England  would  be  eminently  suitable 
here,  far  more  so  than  the  ordinary  products  of  the 
tropics,  for  the  nights  in  the  winter  are  exceedingly 
cold,  and  the  days  often  very  far  from  being  tropical 
in  their  heat. 

As  in  other  districts  of  the  Sudan,  the  eSects  of 
the  first  rains  are  very  striking.  One  day  the  coun- 
try will  be  brown  and  comparatively  bare  ;  the  next 
day  there  will  be  a  shimmer  of  green  over  the  land ; 
and  in  three  or  four  days'  time  the  grass  will  be 
shoulder  high,  and  almost  impenetrable.  The  enor- 
mous damage  done  to  the  forests  by  fires  in  other 
parts  of  the  Sudan  are  scarcely  felt  here,  thanks 
again  to  the  unrelaxing  efforts  of  the  late  Mudir  of 
the  province,  Colonel  Gorringe.  He  succeeded  in 
utterly  stopping  the  dangerous  and  destructive 
practice  of  the  natives  in  this  direction,  and  such  a 
thing  as  an  extensive  forest  fire  is  almost  unknown 
in  the  district,  since,  even  if  one  is  started,  the  in- 
habitants of  the  surrounding  villages  know  better 
than  to  let  it  gain  any  hold  on  the  country.  Thou- 
sands of  pounds'  worth  of  damage  is  done  annually 


THE    COUNTRY   AND    ITS   SPORT     213 

in  other  parts  of  the  Sudan,  but  the  forestry  in  the 
Blue  Nile  is  flourishing.  It  is  perhaps  only  fair  to 
add  that  the  people  of  the  Blue  Nile  are  distinctly 
more  civilised  generally  than  some  of  their  neigh- 
bours in  the  White  Nile  Provinces. 

The  country  between  Roseires,  the  last  post  on 
the  Nile  where  it  is  practicable  to  take  a  steamboat, 
and  Famica,  the  last  station  in  the  Sudan,  which 
stands  some  thirty  kilometres  from  the  Abyssinian 
frontier,  is  exceedingly  beautiful.  The  land  is  undu- 
lating and  thickly  wooded.  Game  is  plentiful  the 
whole  way  up,  though  one  of  my  most  disappointing 
trips  in  the  Sudan  was  that  which  led  me  to  Famica. 
To  begin  with,  I  was  unfortunate  in  my  choice  of 
time,  as  it  turned  out  to  be  the  hottest  week  that  I 
spent  in  the  Blue  Nile  Province.  In  addition  to  this, 
I  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  attempting  too  long  a 
march  on  one  day,  and  was  consequently  good  for 
nothing  on  the  next.  Finding  the  heat  too  much  for 
me  in  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  as  the  road  lay 
with  the  sun  directly  at  my  back,  I  decided  to  camp 
till  an  hour  before  sunset  and  then  march  on  that 
night  to  a  place  called  Abou  Shenania,  a  point  which 
I  hoped  to  reach  at  about  midnight. 

The  first  part  of  the  march  was  lovely ;  occa- 
sionally I  heard  the  rustling  of  a  startled  animal 
tearing  away  into  the  thickets  on  either  side  of  the 
rough  track,  and  once  I  caught  the  outline  of  an 
antelope,  but  it  was  too  dark  to  shoot  with  any 
chance  of  success.  Midnight  came,  and  we  were 
still  marching.     An  hour  later  we  met  a  party  of 


214        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

natives  proceeding  north,  and  eagerly  inquired  the 
distance  to  our  goah  "  Gareeb  khalis  "  (very  near), 
was  the  reply,  "  just  round  the  next  corner."  We 
marched  on,  and  at  intervals  of  about  half  an  hour 
we  met  other  parties  and  repeated  our  question,  in- 
variably receiving  the  same  reply.  I  never  got  so 
sick  of  anything  in  my  life  as  I  was  of  the  sound  of 
those  two  words,  gareeb  khalis.  At  length,  when  it 
was  nearly  3  a.m.,  I  decided  to  march  another 
quarter  of  an  hour  and  then  stop,  whether  we  had 
arrived  at  Abou  Shenania  or  not.  We  had  not,  but 
after  tethering  the  baggage  donkeys  we  sank  down 
by  the  side  of  the  track  and  were  asleep  in  less  than 
a  minute.  The  next  morning,  or,  to  be  more  pre- 
cise, an  hour  or  so  later,  I  woke  and  saw  the  longed- 
for  rest-house  nesthng  in  the  shade  of  some  trees 
not  five  hundred  yards  from  where  I  lay !  We  moved 
on,  and  far  too  tired  to  attempt  to  shoot  success- 
fully, I  retired  to  the  cool  of  the  rest-house  and 
went  to  sleep  again,  waking,  hot  and  bad-tempered, 
at  about  half-past  three.  Lunch  and  tea  combined, 
however,  did  much  to  raise  my  drooping  spirits,  and 
I  went  out  to  try  my  luck.  There  was  no  luck.  I 
bagged  a  couple  of  guinea-fowl  close  to  the  camp  as 
I  was  going  out,  and  got  nothing  else  that  day.  The 
next,  I  had  to  begin  my  march  homewards,  deter- 
mined this  time  to  do  the  distance  by  easy  stages ; 
but  I  never  got  anything  larger  than  gazelle,  and 
returned  with  no  bag  at  all,  feeling  utterly  miser- 
able. To  make  matters  worse,  I  got  a  touch  of  fever 
on  the  last  day  out,  and  spent  the  entire  day's  march 


Photo  liy  <•■  •!.  Miilillctoii 


1-.  211 


FOIUCST   XCENEliY^  lil.UK   MM': 


THE    COUNTRY   AND    ITS   SPORT      215 

in  attempting  to  find  impossible  rhymes  to  terminate 
that  diabolical  little  verse  about  Little  Goody  Two- 
shoes.  Two  Shoes,  Blue  Shoes,  New  Shoes,  True 
Shoes,  and  so  on.  With  wearying  persistency  my 
brain  sought  what  it  could  not  find,  and  my  feet 
walked  to  the  swing  of  the  words.  I  never  wish  to 
repeat  the  experience.  For  many  weeks  afterwards 
it  was  sufficient  to  threaten  a  march  to  Abou  She- 
nania  in  order  to  reduce  complaining  gun-bearers  to 
an  abject  state  of  docihty. 

It  was  on  the  same  road,  however,  that  later  I 
saw  my  first  leopard  at  close  quarters.  I  had  been 
shooting  in  the  forest  on  the  east  side  of  the  Nile 
and  had  got  an  orebie,  and  I  was  returning  to  lunch 
across  an  open  space,  surrounded  with  trees  and 
long  grass,  when  a  leopard  crossed  my  path  some 
sixty  yards  in  front.  Just  as  I  fired  he  began  to 
trot,  with  the  result  that  I  missed  the  heart  and 
hit  him  too  far  in  the  stern.  He  swung  round  with 
a  roar,  and  for  a  moment  it  was  exceedingly  doubtful 
who  was  to  do  the  lunching.  Then,  in  the  excite- 
ment of  the  moment,  I  quite  overlooked  the  fact 
that  the  magazine  of  my  rifle  was  closed,  and  con- 
sequently I  was  unable  to  get  a  fresh  cartridge  in. 
I  turned  and  fled.  Happily,  however,  for  my  subse- 
quent peace  of  mind,  I  thought  of  the  magazine,  and 
got  another  bullet  in  in  time  to  give  the  animal 
a  second  shot  just  as  he  was  turning  into  the  thicket. 
Thinking  it  over  afterwards,  I  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  he  could  not  have  seen  me  at  all,  but  had 
simply  charged  blindly  in  the  direction  from  which 


216        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

the  shot  had  come.  I  followed  the  blood  spoor  into 
the  grass  until  I  lost  it,  but  finally  decided  not  to 
risk  a  fui-ther  search  then,  as  the  grass  was  very 
high,  and  if  the  animal  was  only  shghtly  wounded 
and  sprang,  there  would  be  no  chance  of  retaliation 
at  all.  I  therefore  left  him  for  the  time  and  returned 
after  lunch,  when  his  wounds  would  have  stiffened 
and  there  would  be  less  chance  of  disaster.  I  never 
found  him.  The  place  was  full  of  small  tracks,  any 
of  which  might  have  been  caused  by  his  passing ; 
but  I  found  no  further  traces  of  blood,  and  darkness 
at  length  forced  me  to  reHnquish  my  search.  Some 
of  the  grass,  in  dying,  takes  on  a  peculiar  red-brown 
tinge,  which  is  for  all  the  world  like  dried  blood, 
and  this  makes  the  tracking  of  wounded  animals 
extremely  difiicult.  The  same  evening  I  had  just 
turned  into  my  bed  of  straw  and  one  blanket,  which 
had  been  arranged  on  the  sandy  beach  of  the  Nile, 
when  some  dark  forms  passed  about  a  hundred  yards 
off,  and  in  the  rising  moonhght  I  could  distinguish, 
with  the  aid  of  my  glasses,  a  fine  herd  of  roan  ante- 
lope making  their  way  to  the  river  to  drink.  I 
followed  them  down  the  sand,  but,  foolishly,  I  went 
in  the  soft-leather  boots  which  I  slept  in  to  guard 
my  feet  from  the  attentions  of  sand-flies,  and  conse- 
quently the  moment  that  I  reached  the  shingle  I 
was  forced  to  move  so  slowly  that  they  had  started 
on  their  return  journey  to  the  forest  before  I  could 
get  near  to  them.  In  the  end  I  did  not  get  a  shot, 
as  they  were  too  far  off  for  me  to  distinguish  them 
plainly ;   and  if  I  fired  and  missed,  I  ran  the  risk  of 


THE    COUNTRY   AND   ITS   SPORT     217 

scaring  all  the  animals  from  the  immediate  district, 
and  so  losing  the  morning's  shoot  for  no  account.  I 
remember  that  I  was  awake  the  greater  part  of  that 
night ;  the  place  swarmed  with  hyenas,  and  I  could 
never  trust  the  boys  to  keep  the  fire  going  after  mid- 
night, so  there  was  always  the  danger  of  losing  one 
or  both  of  the  baggage  donkeys  if  a  careful  guard 
was  not  kept. 

The  hyena,  the  most  cowardly  of  the  four-footed 
species,  hesitates  not  a  moment  when  he  sees  an 
animal  safely  tethered  and  waiting  for  his  bite. 
Numerous  animals  were  destroyed  by  hyenas,  or  so 
maimed  that  it  was  necessary  to  shoot  them,  in  the 
village  of  Roseires  itself.  They  are  vermin  of  the 
worst  description.  I  frequently  thought  of  the 
annoyance  which  they  must  cause  the  more  lordly 
beasts,  such  as  the  lion  and  the  leopard ;  for  these 
jackals  of  the  hunt  are  never  silent.  Following  in 
the  wake  of  one  of  the  former  animals,  they  give 
tongue  constantly  until  the  kill,  when  they  squat 
down  at  a  safe  distance  in  the  hope  of  picking  up  a 
few  bones  when  the  others  have  finished  their  meal. 
Their  cry  is  a  long-drawn  howl  of  the  most  intense 
melancholy ;  it  is  fascinating  at  a  distance,  as  it 
swells  out  into  the  night ;  it  is  filled  with  the  pathos 
of  a  quest  which  is  beyond  human  understanding, 
but  the  illusion  fades  when  heard  at  very  close 
quarters,  when  it  strikes  one  as  being  harsh  and  un- 
feeling. Hyenas  possess  enormous  power  of  the 
jaw,  and  can  easily  break  a  donkey's  leg  with  one 
snap  of  the  teeth.    I  never  saw  one  alive  while  I  was 


218        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE   SUDAN 

in  the  Sudan  ;    they  are  exceedingly  wily,  and  slink 
away  at  the  first  hint  of  an  unaccustomed  sound. 

The  lions  of  the  Blue  Nile  are  far  smaller  than 
those  of  the  White.  My  ill-luck  regarding  these 
animals  pursued  me  here,  and  I  never  saw  one 
during  the  eight  months  of  almost  continuous  shoot- 
ing that  I  had  in  the  district.  Frequently  I  was  hot 
on  their  trail,  and  I  have  heard  them  in  the  jungle, 
but  I  never  caught  a  glimpse  of  one. 


CHAPTER   XI 

VARIED   EXPERIENCES   ON  THE   BLUE   NILE 

THE  people  of  the  Blue  Nile  Provinces  have, 
by  reason  of  the  nature  of  the  country  which 
they  inhabit,  a  far  wider  sphere  of  interest  than 
their  neighbours  of  the  White  Nile.  The  southern 
portions  of  the  former  provinces  are  rich  in  mineral 
possibilities  ;  a  slag,  closely  resembling  that  which 
is  found  in  all  coal-fields,  has  been  discovered  on 
the  borders  of  Abyssinia,  and  if  this  mineral  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Sudan  at  all,  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  it  will  prove  to  lie  in  these  districts.  The  value 
of  such  a  discovery  would  be  inestimable  ;  several 
prospecting  parties  have  already  visited  the  Blue 
Nile  and  Northern  Abyssinian  provinces,  and  though, 
so  far,  none  of  these  have  been  actually  successful, 
the  presence  of  the  slag  to  which  I  have  alluded 
points  hopefully  to  better  things  in  the  future. 

A  few  natives  of  Roseires  eke  out  a  bare  living 
by  sifting  the  sand  of  certain  portions  of  the  river 
south  of  the  town  for  gold.  It  is  found  in  very  small 
quantities,  but  a  hard-working  man  can  make  about 
five  piastres,  or  a  shilling  a  day,  and  this  is,  of  course, 
ample  to  meet  all  his  requirements  in  the  way  of 
food  and  raiment.    There  is  a  little  gold,  too,  on  the 

219 


220        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

northern  borders  of  Abyssinia,  and  this  is  sold  at 
an  exceedingly  cheap  rate  in  Roseires,  though  it  is 
not  imported  regularly.  It  is  very  soft  and  very 
yellow ;  the  natives  love  it  for  the  making  of  rings 
and  other  ornaments,  but  as  they  use  it  unalloyed 
it  lasts  a  very  short  time  and  rubs  ofi  against  any 
substance  which  touches  it.  Some  of  the  pebbles 
in  this  district  are  beautifully  grained,  and  there  is 
also  a  creamy  white  flint  which  is  not  to  be  seen  in 
other  parts  of  the  Sudan.  It  is  very  hard,  and  the 
best  kind  of  it  will  cut  glass ;  but  I  think  it  is  of  no 
real  practical  value,  as  it  is  only  to  be  found  in  chips 
lying  about  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  is  not  in 
paying  quantities.  The  bines  which  are  to  be  found 
in  the  forests  here  are  well  worth  examining  for  the 
purpose  of  making  walking-sticks ;  they  are  very 
strong,  and  if  properly  seasoned  they  make  an  un- 
usual and  attractive  stick.  One  day  I  struck  a 
mutinous  member  of  my  crew  with  a  particularly 
knotted  specimen  of  these  bines ;  he  dragged  it  out 
of  my  hand  as  I  attempted  to  retain  it.  He  took 
an  unexpected  bath  the  next  moment.  I  had  so 
much  satisfaction ;  but  he  lived  in  my  memory  for 
many  days  afterwards. 

As  the  days  get  warmer  and  the  rains  begin  falling 
in  the  south  the  usual  swarm  of  insects  descends 
upon  Roseires,  and  attends  your  dinner-table  with 
clock-like  regularity.  The  flying  ant  is  the  worst 
and  most  loathsome  specimen  which  you  have  to 
contend  with  ;  it  always  strikes  you  as  being  so 
particularly  unclean  as  it  crawls  into  your  soup,  or 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  221 

alights  on  your  fork  just  as  you  are  about  to  put  it 
in  your  mouth.  But  the  place  is  comparatively  free 
from  mosquitoes — that  is  to  say,  in  comparison  with 
some  of  the  other  parts  of  the  Sudan.  The  fact  of 
the  banks  being  high  is,  of  course,  a  great  help  in 
the  direction  of  keeping  the  number  of  these  insects 
down  ;  stagnant  water  is  not  often  to  be  found,  and 
they  have  therefore  no  breeding-places  as  they  have 
on  the  White  Nile. 

To  the  east  of  the  river  there  is,  however,  a  famous 
swampy  region  called  Khor  Tub,  but  as  I  visited  it 
in  the  winter  time,  I  do  not  remember  any  mos- 
quitoes at  all.  I  do  remember  the  water,  though, 
for  I  never  tasted  anything  quite  like  it  before  or 
since.  It  was  green.  We  were  a  party  of  four 
Englishmen,  with  about  a  dozen  attendants,  and 
we  rode  out  to  the  Khor  for  the  purpose  of  hunting 
the  roan  antelope,  never  dreaming  but  that  there 
would  be  a  sufficiency  of  water  to  provide  for  all 
our  wants.  One  of  the  men  had  been  out  a  week 
or  so  before,  and  reported  water  in  abundance.  But 
the  week  which  had  elapsed  since  his  visit  had  been 
very  hot,  and  the  place  was  the  drinking  centre  of 
all  the  game  of  that  district,  with  the  result  that 
when  we  arrived  there  was  not  a  clean  drop  of  water 
to  be  found.  What  there  was,  went  as  near  crawling 
as  any  water  I  have  ever  seen.  On  the  way  out  we 
had  a  long  gallop  after  a  gazelle,  and  had  then  drunk 
freely  of  the  supply  which  we  carried  with  us  on 
our  saddles,  so  that  we  were  left  practically  without 
water  on  our  arrival.    That  night,  however,  was  all 


222        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

right,  and  a  man  was  immediately  sent  back  to 
Roseires  with  instructions  to  bring  a  camel  load  of 
fresh  water  out  the  first  thing  in  the  morning.  Early 
tea  was  abandoned  on  sight ;  but  we  started  out, 
thinking  that  the  messenger  could  not  fail  to  put 
in  an  appearance  by  the  time  we  returned  to  break- 
fast. We  had  a  splendid  morning ;  the  trackers 
found  fresh  spoor  almost  directly  we  left  the  camp, 
and  in  less  than  an  hour  we  came  up  with  a  fine 
held  of  roan.  The  going  was  rather  bad,  as  the 
whole  district  was  pitted  with  elephant  tracks,  and 
the  trees  were  thick  in  parts.  We  were  gaining 
rapidly,  however,  when  one  of  the  party,  who  was 
just  behind  me,  attempted  to  cut  across  by  dashing 
between  two  trees.  There  was  not  sufficient  room 
for  his  shoulders,  and  he  came  out  of  the  saddle 
backwards  with  tremendous  force.  I  was  pulling 
up  to  go  to  his  assistance  when  he  shouted  to  me 
that  he  was  all  right  and  that  I  was  to  go  on,  so  on 
I  went.  I  was  within  some  two  hundred  yards  of 
the  herd  when  I  accidentally  struck  my  spear  against 
a  tree  and  lost  the  head.  By  the  time  that  I  had 
recovered  it  I  was  too  late  ;  the  herd  had  escaped, 
and  my  horse,  full  of  life  during  the  first  gallop,  had 
no  idea  of  going  on  again  at  the  same  pace  now 
that  we  had  once  stopped.  As  it  turned  out,  no  one 
killed  that  day,  but  it  was  an  excellent  morning  all 
the  same. 

The  roan  is  by  far  the  most  sporting  antelope  to 
hunt ;  it  will  always  turn  at  the  end,  and  one  there- 
fore loses  the  sense  of  slaughter  which  would  be  felt 


VARIED   EXPERIENCES  223 

if  the  animal  hunted  was  without  the  instinct  of 
retahation,  as,  for  instance,  the  water-buck. 

The  wart-hog,  which  is  the  wild  boar  of  Africa, 
is  also  good  sport  and  charges  gamely,  but  it  does 
not  give  you  the  run  that  the  antelope  does,  and  it 
is  also  much  scarcer. 

When  we  returned  to  camp  for  breakfast  we 
found,  to  our  dismay,  that  no  water  had  yet  arrived 
from  the  Nile,  and  we  were  forced  to  drink  the  filthy 
stuff  which  was  the  only  liquor  available.  We 
brewed  it  into  the  very  strongest  tea  possible,  but 
even  this  only  went  a  little  way  towards  destroying 
its  natural  flavour.  To  make  matters  even  harder 
to  bear,  one  of  our  party  amused  himself  by  giving 
us  a  detailed,  and  I  am  sure  exaggerated,  account  of 
the  silver  streams  and  splashing  waterfalls  which  he 
said  surroimded  his  home.  He  also  dilated  upon 
the  waste  of  water  in  England.  "  Think  of  the 
thousands  of  people  in  England  at  the  present 
moment  who  are  washing  their  hands  in  crystal, 
cool,  rushing  water,"  he  said ;  "  think  of  the  water 
springing  out  of  the  hydrants  into  water-carts  in 
the  streets  of  London,"  and  so  on.  We  thought — 
but  it  did  not  seem  to  improve  matters. 

Lunch-time  came  and  passed,  and  still  no  water 
arrived.  But  at  about  four  o'clock  I  waked  from 
my  siesta  to  hear  the  welcome  sound  of  iron  water 
reservoirs  being  detached  from  a  camel's  saddle,  and 
two  minutes  later  we  were  drinking  deep  of  Nile 
water,  with  just  sufficient  whisky  to  destroy  the 
germs.     The  man   had   missed   his   way   the   night 


224        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

before,  and  had  eventually  turned  up  on  the  bank 
of  the  Nile  some  ten  miles  north  of  Roseires. 

It  was  with  a  very  different  feeling  that  we  went 
out  for  the  evening's  hunt.  We  did  not  find,  and 
returned  empty  -  handed  ;  but  the  beauty  of  the 
country,  combined  with  the  constant  expectation  of 
a  run,  and  the  knowledge  that  our  evening's  meal 
was  to  be  accompanied  with  good  clean  water,  served 
to  lessen  our  disappointment  at  the  barrenness  of 
our  search  for  game.  But  it  took  some  days  before 
the  taste  of  the  awful  stuff  which  we  had  been  forced 
to  drink  departed ;  it  may  have  been  imagination, 
but  it  certainly  struck  each  one  of  us  that  the  others 
were  looking  a  greenish  yellow,  the  colour  of  the 
liquid  we  had  swallowed. 

While  I  was  at  Roseires  a  pilgrim  arrived  there 
on  his  return  from  Mecca  to  Hausa  Land.  He  had 
spent  half  his  life  in  the  pilgrimage  when  he  arrived 
at  this  town,  and  had  still  some  three  thousand  miles 
to  walk.  The  whole  of  the  journey,  except  where 
the  sea  intervened,  had  been  accomplished  on  foot, 
and  he  appeared  to  be  exceedingly  fit  when  I  saw 
him.  He  was  very  intelligent,  a  native  of  Sokoto, 
and  he  gave  me  many  interesting  details  of  the  game 
which  he  had  seen  in  the  course  of  his  wanderings. 
Unfortunately,  I  did  not  keep  a  written  record  of 
what  he  told  me,  and  I  have  forgotten  much  of  it ; 
but  I  remember  that  his  conversation  was  full  of 
interest  and  that  he  had  had  several  narrow  escapes 
from  death  in  the  course  of  his  walk.  He  was  rather 
handsome  and  had  wonderful  manners,  almost  those 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  225 

of  an  EngUsh  gentleman.  He  had,  of  course,  begged 
his  way  from  the  start,  and  I  was  glad  to  find  that 
the  people  of  Roseires  responded  generously  to  his 
call ;  he  left  with  sufficient  provisions  and  money 
to  keep  him  going  for  a  fairly  long  time.  He  carried 
no  arms  at  all,  but  walked  with  a  long  staff,  which 
he  said  was  sufficient  guard  to  shield  a  pilgrim  from 
the  attacks  of  the  wildest  beasts  or  men.  He  was 
the  subject  of  much  interest  to  my  crew  on  the  day 
of  his  arrival  at  the  station,  when  he  came  on  board 
to  pay  his  respects  to  the  white  men ;  this,  he  said, 
was  the  first  thing  which  he  invariably  did  on  arrival 
at  a  station  where  there  were  Europeans.  So  fired 
were  my  crew  with  admiration  at  his  pluck  in  attempt- 
ing such  a  long  and  arduous  journey  that  some  of 
the  younger  men  expressed  their  determination  to 
start  for  Mecca  immediately  the  steamer  arrived  at 
Khartoum  again.  However,  time  had  damped  their 
ardour  when  we  at  last  arrived  there,  and  I  do  not 
think  that  any  of  them  actually  started ;  they  had 
not  when  I  left  the  country. 

The  elephant  in  the  Blue  Nile  Province  are 
scarcely  worth  shooting ;  it  is  very  seldom  that  a 
good  tusker  is  to  be  found  in  a  herd.  Shortly  after 
I  left,  an  officer  who  happened  to  be  in  the  district, 
went  out  on  a  bright  moonlight  night,  to  await  the 
coming  of  the  herd  to  one  of  their  favourite  drinking- 
places  on  the  west  bank.  A  little  after  midnight 
they  appeared,  and,  choosing  what  he  considered  to 
be  the  finest  animal,  he  fired  at  and  wounded  it. 
Following  them  up,  he  caught  sight  of  the  animal 
Q 


226        FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

and  fired  again,  and  a  few  minutes  later  gave  a  third 
shot.  The  next  morning  three  elephant,  all  cows, 
were  found  to  have  been  mortally  wounded  by  his 
shots.  There  is  always  this  danger  in  shooting  by 
moonlight,  even  under  the  glorious  moon  of  the 
Sudan.  Appearances  are  so  very  deceptive  in  the 
gleamy  light,  and  it  is  seldom  that  you  can  pick  the 
best  animal  unless  you  are  very  close  indeed. 

I  find  by  looking  at  my  diary  that  I  shot  a  croco- 
dile nearly  every  day,  but  was  always  unable  to 
recover  the  body.  A  larger  experience  of  the  reptile 
has  now  sown  the  seeds  of  a  horrible  doubt  as  to  the 
veracity  of  this  statement,  and  I  should  be  inclined 
to  think — had  the  sportsman  been  anyone  but  my- 
self— that  the  crocodiles  fired  at  and  apparently 
killed,  were,  in  all  probability,  not  in  the  plural  at 
all.  There  is  apparently  no  sport  which  crocodiles 
love  so  dearly  as  being  fired  at ;  they  will  return 
day  by  day  with  clock-like  regularity  to  any  spot 
where  they  are  fairly  certain  of  being  afforded  the 
pleasant  sensation  of  having  their  scales  stroked  by 
a  passing  bullet,  or  the  least  vital  part  of  their 
anatomy  pierced.  It  amuses  man,  and  it  does  not 
hurt  them  ;    therefore  is  everyone  pleased. 

Taking  them  all  through,  the  natives  of  the  Blue 
Nile  Province  are  entirely  loyal  and  useful  sup- 
porters of  the  Enghsh  regime  in  the  country.  It  is 
true  that  this  province  was  the  scene  of  the  murder 
of  Mr.  Scott-Moncrieff  in  the  year  1908  ;  but  even 
though  the  first  action  on  the  part  of  the  revolution- 
aries was  successful,  the  majority  of  the  natives  of 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  227 

that  district  remained  loyal  to  the  Government,  and 
were,  indeed,  instrumental  in  the  capture  of  some 
of  the  leaders  of  the  revolt.  In  connection  with  this 
affair,  it  is  impossible  not  to  regret  the  action  of  the 
Government  in  giving  way  to  what  was,  in  my 
opinion,  a  mistaken  act  of  mercy — the  reprieving  of 
so  many  of  the  men  who  had  been  condemned  to 
death  by  the  court  for  complicity  in  a  cold-blooded 
murder.  Justice,  tempered  with  mercy,  has  been  the 
policy  of  the  British  Government  in  all  corners  of 
the  world ;  but  the  Sirdar  in  granting  the  reprieve 
referred  to  was  undertaking  a  responsibihty  of  which 
the  results  will  reach  further  than  the  corner  of  the 
Sudan  where  the  incident  occurred.  I  was  in  Egypt 
at  the  time  when  the  main  controversy  in  regard  to 
the  reprieve  was  going  the  round  of  the  country, 
and  I  am  convinced  that  the  moral  effect  produced 
was  not  good.  Circumstances  alter  cases,  and 
whereas  this  act  of  leniency  might  have  been  pro- 
ductive of  nothing  but  beneficial  results  at  one  time, 
its  coming,  as  it  did,  shortly  after  the  release  of  the 
Denshawi  prisoners  and  the  resignation  of  Lord 
Cromer,  lent  it  an  aspect  of  weakness  in  the  eyes  of 
the  half-educated  Egyptian,  which  materially  har- 
assed the  work  of  the  English  in  Egypt. 

Shortly  after  the  reprieve  had  been  granted,"  but 
while  the  agitation  caused  by  the  utterances  of  the 
"  Lewa,"  then  the  chief  organ  of  Nationalism  in 
Egypt,  was  still  in  progress,  I  was  fortunately  able 
to  see  the  Sirdar  on  the  subject.  I  must  confess 
that  I  failed  to  find  in  his  conversation  any  adequate 


228        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

reason  for  such  a  drastic  sweep  of  leniency.  His 
Excellency,  while  naturally  reticent  in  regard  to  the 
dossier  which  had  been  the  subject  of  so  much 
speculation  in  the  native  Press  regarding  the  in- 
cident, was  very  kind  in  giving  me  all  the  informa- 
tion in  his  power.  But  he  offered  no  definite  and 
convincing  reason  for  the  executing  of  the  reprieve. 
"  Enough  blood  had  been  spilled,"  and,  in  his  opinion, 
"  it  would  not  have  been  wise  to  carry  out  the  sen- 
tences passed  by  the  courts  on  the  particular  men 
whom  he  had  reprieved." 

The  administration  of  Sir  Reginald  Wingate  in 
the  Sudan,  both  as  Sirdar  and  Governor-General, 
having  been  so  absolutely  free  from  the  acts  of  mis- 
taken and  dangerous  leniency  which  are  far  too 
common  among  Englishmen  in  dealing  with  natives, 
the  matter  escaped  condemnation  in  the  English 
Press  at  the  time,  but  the  whole  feeling  in  Egypt  ap- 
peared to  be  that  a  mistake  had  been  committed.  In 
so  far  as  the  Sudan  itself  was  concerned,  it  is  possible 
that  the  reprieve  was  received  in  the  spirit  in  which 
it  was  granted ;  but,  after  all,  Egypt  is  so  closely 
connected  with  the  Sudan  that  the  two  countries 
should  on  occasions  like  these  be  considered  equally, 
and  if  the  men  were  found  to  be  guilty  of  acts  which 
deserved  the  death  penalty,  the  finding  of  the  court 
should  have  been  allowed  to  stand.  Also  each  in- 
dividual case  must  of  necessity  be  treated  with  a 
due  regard  to  the  future.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  fact 
that  the  rising  in  this  instance  had  been  connived 
at  and  approved  of  by  many  of  the  important  houses 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  229 

of  the  Sudan,  and  that  it  was  not  the  individual  act 
of  a  fanatic.  Much,  therefore,  in  regard  to  the  future 
peace  of  the  country  hung  upon  the  manner  in 
which  those  convicted  of  open  complicity  in  the 
affair  were  treated.  The  Sudan  is,  as  I  have  already 
mentioned,  a  country  young  in  civilisation ;  and 
the  principles  of  administration — if  it  can  be  called 
by  such  a  name — of  the  former  regime  is  still  present 
in  the  minds  of  thousands  of  our  subjects  in  the 
country  at  the  present  time.  It  has  been  proved 
again  and  again  all  over  the  world  that  sudden 
change  has  a  disastrous  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the 
native  ;  and  to  introduce  the  doctrine  of  a  question- 
able leniency  into  a  country  where,  in  former  days, 
worth  was  judged  entirely  from  a  standpoint  of 
strength  and  harshness,  is  neither  fair  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  country  themselves,  or  to  the  men 
of  the  future  in  whose  hands  the  guidance  of  the 
people  will  lie. 

We  have  striking  examples  of  the  futility  of  this 
method  of  administration  in  the  Egypt  of  to-day, 
where  white  men  are  openly  defied  by  their  servants, 
and  where  outrages  upon  the  lives  and  property  of 
Englishmen  are  unfortunately  common  occurrences. 
To  my  mind,  this  action  on  the  part  of  Sir  Reginald 
Wingate  is  the  only  serious  mistake  which  he  has 
made  in  his  long  and  successful  administration  of 
the  country. 

In  the  case  of  the  former  Mahdi  at  Kordofan, 
which  I  have  already  alluded  to,  letters  were  seized 
which  proved  the  complicity  of  sheikhs  of  powerful 


230        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

influence  in  the  Sudan,  and  it  is  certain  that,  had 
the  matter  been  treated  with  less  severity,  the 
country  would  not  have  been  so  easily  reclaimed  to 
a  state  of  peace  and  security.  The  decisive  action 
of  Colonel  Mahan,  who  captured,  tried,  and  hanged 
the  leader  in  the  short  space  of  a  week  or  so,  dealt 
the  death-blow  to  his  party,  and  the  conspiracy 
collapsed  like  a  pack  of  cards. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  foretell  the  coming  of 
such  risings  ;  the  spirit  of  Mahdism  is  latent  in  the 
nature  of  a  very  great  portion  of  the  population  of 
the  Sudan ;  it  is  not  an  active  danger,  but  in  the 
name  of  religion  the  people  will  follow  like  children 
in  the  wake  of  any  strong  man  who  will  lead  them. 
This  being  so,  it  behoves  the  Government  to  act 
with  strength  and  decision  should  there  be  any  rising, 
however  small,  for,  though  easily  checked  in  the 
beginning,  there  is  no  telling  what  would  happen  in 
the  event  of  the  movement  being  allowed  to  spread, 
and  any  suspicion  of  weakness  on  the  part  of  the 
Government  in  dealing  with  conspirators  when  cap- 
tured would  be  fatal.  The  Sudanie,  far  more  than 
the  Egyptian,  is  sensible  to  justice,  but  his  contempt, 
in  the  appalling  event  of  its  ever  being  aroused, 
would  deal  immediate  death  to  the  carefully  woven 
scheme  of  civilisation  which  we  have  introduced  into 
his  country.  With  every  year  that  passes  the  danger 
of  a  rising  of  this  kind  becomes  more  and  more  re- 
mote. Children  are  growing  up  in  the  appreciation 
of  an  orderly  and  productive  administration ;  men, 
born  in  the  reign  of  the  bloodthirsty  despotism  for 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  231 

which  the  Mahdi  and  his  Khalifa  were  responsible, 
become  year  by  year  more  sensible  to  the  advan- 
tages which  the  new  regime  has  to  offer  them,  and 
more  inclined  to  hesitate  before  throwing  away  the 
substance  for  the  shadow.  The  extension  of  the 
railway  system  will  induce  freer  intercourse  between 
the  various  tribes,  and  trade,  with  its  tangible  and 
ever-present  advantages,  will  with  every  year  play 
a  more  important  part  in  the  lives  of  the  people. 

On  the  Blue  Nile  now,  there  are  many  thriving  and 
prosperous  settlements  worked  entirely  by  men  who 
were  loungers  in  the  streets  of  Omdurman — without 
work,  hope,  or  ambition — in  the  days  before  the 
united  forces  of  England  and  Egypt  swept  the 
tyrannous,  grinding  rule  of  the  Khalifa  from  the 
land.  These  men  take  the  keenest  interest  in  their 
homes  and  property ;  they  are  very  striking  ex- 
amples of  the  possibilities  of  the  native  of  the  Sudan. 
It  was  a  hard  task  to  drag  them  from  the  life  of 
indolence  which  possessed  them  at  first,  and  to 
banish  them  from  the  doubtful  delights  of  the  town 
to  a  spot  where  they  would  be  forced  to  rely  upon 
their  own  energy  for  a  living ;  but  it  was  accom- 
plished in  the  end,  with  results  which  the  most 
optimistic  might  have  hesitated  to  predict. 

In  the  perfect  climate  with  which  they  are  blessed 
for  so  many  months  of  the  year  the  inliabitants  of 
this  province  have  a  great  advantage  over  tin;  in- 
habitants of  some  of  the  White  Nile  districts.  Near 
Khartoum,  on  the  White  Nile,  the  land  at  a  dis- 
tance of  a  hundred  yards  or  so  from  the  river  is 


232        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

nothing  more  or  less  than  barren  desert ;  every  inch 
of  cultivation,  apart  from  that  right  on  the  banks 
of  the  river,  has  to  be  irrigated,  with  a  large  ex- 
penditure of  labour  and  consequent  expense.  In 
the  provinces  of  the  other  river  the  soil  is,  for  the 
most  part,  healthy  and  productive,  and  its  natural 
dampness  in  the  upper  regions  is  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce at  least  one  crop  a  year  without  human  aid. 
Then,  when  one  does  reach  the  fertile  lands  of  the 
White  Nile,  the  districts  are  not  nearly  as  healthy 
as  those  on  the  sister  river,  and  also  one  has  to 
contend  with  the  seroot  fly  in  thousands  by  day,  and 
the  mosquito  in  millions  by  night.  Therefore  it  is 
not  surprising  to  find  that  the  Blue  Nile  Province 
shows  greater  signs  of  civilisation  among  the  natives 
than  that  of  the  White  Nile.  A  stranger  passing 
through  on  a  steamer  might  think  that  the  towns 
on  the  White  Nile  were  larger  and  ordered  in  a 
superior  fashion  to  those  of  the  Blue.  There  are, 
of  course,  larger  towns  on  the  borders  of  the  more 
important  river,  and  their  appearance  is  more  striking, 
as  there  are  usually  more  English  officials  stationed 
in  them.  But,  taking  the  natives  themselves,  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  the  Blue  Nile  resident  has  the 
advantage  in  order  and  energy  over  his  neighbour. 
Their  villages  are  usually  clean,  their  huts  well  and 
strongly  built,  and  their  instincts  generally  lie  nearer 
civihsation  than  those  of  the  lower  White  Nile.  Of 
course,  in  the  extreme  south  of  the  latter  region  it 
has  been  shown  that  the  natives  are  merely  savages, 
but  I  am  now  referring  to  those  tribes  which,  apart 


\ 


VARIED   EXPERIENCES  233 

'from  the  cKmate  and  the  matter  of  irrigation,  have 
had  equal  advantages  with  the  tribes  on  the  other 
river. 

Curiously  enough,  there  is  no  comparison,  as  a 
general  rule,  in  the  physiognomy  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Sudanese.  The  faces  of  the  savage  tribes 
which  inhabit  the  country  to  the  south  of  Fashoda, 
or  Kodok,  are  infinitely  more  refined  and  intellectual 
than  the  men  who  are  really  making  extraordinary 
strides  in  the  direction  of  an  effectual  civilisation 
further  north.  The  negroid  type  is  entirely  absent 
from  the  southern  tribes,  but  it  is  by  no  means  un- 
usual among  the  northern.  This  fact  is  due,  pre- 
sumably, to  the  enormous  variety  of  alien  women 
imported  to  swell  the  harems  of  the  Khalifa  and  his 
chiefs,  and  of  slaves  accumulated  during  the  course 
of  generations.  One  of  the  keenest  of  my  gun- 
bearers  was,  to  all  appearances,  a  thorough  negro, 
but  he  showed  more  intelligence  than  many  Egyp- 
tians. His  eyesight  was  extraordinary,  and  I  know 
he  must  often  have  inwardly  reviled  me  for  my 
slowness  in  perceiving  an  animal  which  he  was  vainly 
attempting  to  point  out.  I  recollect  leaving  him 
behind  one  afternoon,  much  to  his  disgust,  and  re- 
gretting it  ever  afterwards.  I  had  grown  tired  of 
always  walking  with  a  native  a  few  yards  behind, 
and  as  I  only  intended  to  go  into  the  woods  at  the 
back  of  my  house  with  the  shot-gun  for  guinea-fowl 
and  partridge,  I  turned  a  deaf  car  to  his  entreaties 
to  allow  him  to  follow  with  the  rifle  ready  for  emer- 
gencies.    I  had  rather  a  successful  afternoon,  and 


234        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

with  the  bag  at  my  back  ahiiost  filled  with  game, 
I  was  on  the  point  of  returning  home  when  a  covey 
of  partridge  passed  me,  just  out  of  range,  and  took 
the  ground  near  some  shrubs  at  almost  a  hundred 
yards'  distance.  I  followed  up  and,  getting  well 
within  range,  I  shouted  to  raise  them.  Nothing 
rose,  but  to  my  great  surprise  a  dog-like  animal 
came  out  from  behind  the  shrubs  and  advanced  to 
meet  me.  It  was  large,  about  the  size  of  a  small 
St.  Bernard,  with  a  flat  head  and  black  jowl.  It 
stopped  for  a  moment  on  seeing  me,  and  then  ad- 
vanced steadily.  Only  having  a  shot-gun  in  my 
hand,  and  not  wishing  to  wound  without  killing,  I 
shouted  at  it,  but  it  took  not  the  slightest  notice  of 
me  and  continued  to  approach.  I  waited  until  it 
was  within  ten  yards  or  so,  and  then  fired  at  its 
head.  It  turned  then,  but  without  the  least  appear- 
ance of  being  badly  wounded.  I  had  not  an  idea 
of  what  it  was  at  the  time,  but  subsequent  inquiry 
has  convinced  me  that  it  was  nothing  more  than  an 
African  hunting -dog,  although  these  animals  had 
never  been  seen  in  the  district  before.  It  is  also  a 
most  unusual  thing  for  one  to  separate  itself  from 
the  rest  of  the  pack.  They  are  not  often  dangerous 
to  human  beings,  unless  ravenous  with  hunger,  when 
they  will  attack. 

After  I  left  the  district  a  new  sport  was  intro- 
duced by  one  of  the  English  inspectors,  who  had  his 
head-quarters  at  Roseires.  Accompanied  by  a  few 
natives,  armed  like  himself  with  swords  only,  they 
would  track  a  herd  of  elephants  in  which  there  were 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  235 

young,  and,  after  letting  the  herd  wind  them,  would 
charge.  The  mother  of  the  young  elephant  would 
naturally  drop  behind  the  rest  of  the  herd,  and  one 
of  the  horsemen  would  gallop  past,  severing  the 
fetlock  of  the  animal  in  passing.  The  moment  that 
this  feat  was  successfully  accomplished  the  beast 
was  shot  and  the  small  elephant  captured.  One  of 
the  animals  at  present  in  the  Zoological  Gardens  of 
Cairo  was  captured  in  this  manner.  The  sport  is 
naturally  very  dangerous,  for  should  a  horse  fall, 
almost  certain  death  awaits  the  rider.  But  the 
natives  of  the  Sudan  are,  for  the  most  part,  without 
fear,  and  love  the  excitement  of  the  sport ;  they 
are  a  very  different  race  to  the  Egyptians,  who 
have  a  great  regard  for  the  safety  of  their  own 
persons. 

My  favourite  camping-place  was  at  a  spot  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  some  five  or  six  miles  south  of 
Roseires,  and  on  my  first  visit  there  I  was  fortunate 
in  kilhng  a  very  fine  python.  I  was  walking  home 
to  lunch  at  my  camp  at  midday,  when  I  saw  the 
reptile  close  to  the  water.  I  thought  it  was  a  croco- 
dile, and  was  about  to  fire,  when,  to  my  surprise,  I 
saw  it  turn  in  towards  the  land  instead  of  imme- 
diately making  for  the  river.  I  fired,  but  the  bullet 
went  clean  over  its  head,  and  it  increased  its  speed 
for  the  safety  of  the  forest.  A  second  shot,  however, 
was  better  judged,  and  F  blew  the  top  of  its  head  off. 
My  gun-bearer,  hugely  excited,  immediately  stepped 
forward  and  took  hold  of  it,  but  he  regretted  the 
action  a  moment  later  when  the  dying  reptile  wound 


236        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

round  Lis  body  with  all  its  remaining  force.  Fortu- 
nately, this  was  no  longer  sufficient  to  do  him  any 
injury  beyond  giving  him  a  terrible  fright ;  and, 
indeed,  it  had  the  same  effect  upon  me.  It  was  some 
minutes  before  I  could  screw  up  enough  courage  to 
touch  its  loathsome  body.  It  measured  over  sixteen 
feet,  and  its  skin  was  a  particularly  fine  one.  Snakes 
are  fairly  numerous  on  the  Blue  Nile,  but  during  the 
whole  time  that  I  was  up  in  the  province  I  never 
had  one  of  my  men  poisoned  by  a  bite,  though  num- 
bers of  them  spent  the  greater  part  of  their  time  in 
the  forests  cutting  wood,  in  places  where  they  would 
have  been  most  likely  to  suffer  had  venomous  snakes 
been  numerous  in  the  district.  Scorpions  are  to  be 
found  nearly  everywhere,  and  the  tarantula  spider 
in  a  few  parts  of  the  Sudan. 

Though  I  did  not  get  a  particularly  fine  head,  the 
shooting  of  my  Tourah  hartebeeste  was  one  of  the 
achievements  with  which  I  was  most  pleased ;  even 
as  it  was,  I  should  not  have  got  him  but  for  the 
energy  of  the  native  guide  and  tracker  who  was  with 
me  at  the  time.  I  spotted  a  herd  early  in  the  day 
as  we  were  marching  to  join  the  river  to  the  south, 
but  it  was  a  long  time  before  I  got  a  shot.  At  length 
I  lay  down  to  steady  myself,  for  the  day  was  exceed- 
ingly hot,  and  I  felt  at  the  moment  that  if  I  missed 
now  I  should  be  unable  to  move  another  half-mile 
in  chase.  To  my  great  delight  the  beast  fell  to  the 
shot,  but  my  tracker  made  the  mistake  of  imme- 
diately rushing  forward ;  the  animal  recovered 
itself  and  was  off  like  the  wind,  apparently  scarcely 


"»*»  v»  a.-    .«.! 


rtf  7.tm'.^^--   -m- 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  237 

wounded  at  all.  Hope  dies  hard  in  cases  like  this, 
and,  forgetting  our  weariness,  we  followed.  For  a 
full  hour  we  tracked  the  wounded  beast  through 
thickets  and  over  plains — never,  however,  getting 
time  for  a  second  shot.  At  last,  after  a  particularly 
hard  bit  of  ground,  I  was  forced  to  admit  myself 
done  for  the  time  being  ;  water  had  been  left  behind 
with  the  donkeys,  and  I  felt  that  I  could  go  not  a 
step  further.  But  my  guide  was  possessed  of  greater 
staying  powers,  and  asked  to  borrow  my  rifle  and 
continue  the  chase  himself.  I  handed  him  the  gun 
and  he  was  off  like  the  wind,  firing  blindly  in  the 
air  as  he  sped  along.  I  calculated,  with  deep  thank- 
fulness, that  in  all  probability  the  ammunition  in  the 
magazine  would  be  spent  before  he  again  turned 
towards  me,  as,  judging  from  the  way  in  which  he 
was  handling  the  rifle,  it  must  have  been  the  first 
time  that  he  had  ever  had  one  in  his  possession.  But 
he  never  got  out  of  sight ;  the  animal's  strength 
had  been  spent,  and  he  dropped  dead  at  about  five 
hundred  yards  from  where  I  was  resting.  Saned,  the 
guide,  was  overjoyed  at  his  success,  and  to  this  day 
he  believes  that  he  had  killed  it.  No  one  likes  to 
lose  the  credit  of  his  shot,  and  I  examined  the  beast 
closely  when  I  got  up  to  it,  but  there  was  not  a 
second  shot  in  its  body.  I  did  not  point  this  out  to 
the  sportsman  who  had,  at  the  least,  done  his  best, 
and  I  freely  admit  that  had  it  not  been  for  him  I 
should  never  have  secured  it,  for  I  could  not  have 
gone  on  had  all  the  forces  of  the  Malidi  at  the  height 
of  his  power  been  at  my  back.    As  it  was,  I  shall 


238        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

never  forget  my  weariness  as  I  marched  back  to  the 
river,  wet  through  with  perspiration,  parched  with 
thirst,  and  decidedly  hungry  into  the  bargain — I 
thought  tliat  we  would  never  reach  the  water.  As  a 
general  rule,  1  never  left  a  path  to  follow  an  animal 
without  carrying  a  water-bottle  with  me,  but  on  this 
occasion  I  had,  for  some  reason  or  another,  left  it 
behind.  I  never  smoked  while  shooting  except  in 
the  early  morning,  immediately  after  a  kill,  or  on 
the  return  journey.  When  I  came  up  to  the  animal 
this  time,  therefore,  I  lit  a  cigarette  mechanically, 
forgetting  for  the  moment  that  I  had  no  water,  and 
the  smoke  materially  increased  my  thirst.  Saned 
offered  me  some  gum  to  chew,  but  it  did  not  have 
the  desired  effect  at  all ;  I  think  it  made  me  more 
thirsty  than  before.  When  at  last  we  did  come  to 
the  denser  forest  which  marked  the  borderland  of 
the  river,  new  life  seemed  to  be  given  me.  The 
scenery  was  incomparably  beautiful ;  it  was  about 
five  miles  south  of  Roseires  on  the  west  bank.  We 
marched  down  a  game  track  which  ran  through 
thickets  of  the  most  gorgeous  verdure ;  the  small 
grey  monkey  of  the  country  gambolled  overhead 
among  the  trees,  and  now  and  again  we  could  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  palm  trees  which  lined  the  river  in 
the  distance.  Then  we  lost  them,  and  for  some  time 
I  fancied  that  we  must  have  inadvertently  mistaken 
the  path,  when  we  suddenly  mounted  a  small  hillock, 
and  there  at  our  feet  lay  the  shining,  life-giving  Nile 
itself.  I  could  not  wait ;  heedless  of  my  guide's 
warning  cry  of  crocodiles,  I  walked  straight  into  the 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  239 

river  till  I  was  waist  high  in  the  waters ;  then  I 
stooped  and  drank. 

True  to  his  traditions — he  had  never  been  known 
to  mistake  his  way — my  guide  had  led  me  to  the  very 
spot  where  I  had  arranged  for  the  camp  to  be  pitched, 
and  five  minutes  after  my  bath  I  was  enjoying  a 
lunch  such  as  Mohammed  alone  could  prepare  in  the 
wilderness.  Then  in  the  shade  of  a  giant  tree  I  lay 
and  read,  and  smoked  until  sleep  overcame  me,  to 
wake  at  about  five  o'clock,  refreshed  and  invigorated, 
when  I  made  a  short  excursion  with  my  shot-gun 
before  darkness  fell  on  the  land. 

Curiously  enough,  one  of  my  most  successful  trips 
was  also  one  of  my  shortest.  I  had  frequently  been 
out  a  week  at  a  time  into  good  game  country,  and 
got  nothing  worth  speaking  of ;  and  I  therefore 
began  to  fear  that  I  should  have  to  leave  the  district 
before  shooting  the  much-coveted  koodoo.  How- 
ever, one  morning  I  started  out,  and  my  luck  was 
good  from  the  very  beginning.  I  shot  a  gazelle  on 
the  way  to  the  place  where  I  had  decided  to  camp 
for  the  night ;  and  in  the  cool  of  the  evening  I  went 
down  along  the  river-bank  on  the  possible  chance 
of  meeting  some  animals  either  going  to  or  from  the 
river.  Just  as  I  was  beginning  to  give  it  up  I  noticed 
a  fresh  spoor  leading  to  the  water.  It  was  that  of  a 
roan  antelope,  a  specimen  of  the  antelope  tribe  I  had 
hitherto  been  unsuccessful  in  obtaining.  I  followed 
it  down  right  to  the  water's  edge,  where  it  turned 
again  to  the  forest.  I  was  evidently  too  late ;  the 
animal  had  drunk.     But  as  I  was  returning  along 


240        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

the  beach  I  suddenly  saw  a  fine  roan  bull  emerge 
from  the  forest  about  five  hundred  yards  from  where 
I  stood,  and  advance  towards  me.  It  was  impossible 
to  find  any  cover,  as  the  beach  at  this  point  was  very 
wide,  so  I  lay  flat  on  my  face,  motioning  to  my  gun- 
bearer  to  do  the  same.  Fortunately,  there  was  no 
wind  from  us,  so  the  beast  came  on  until  I  bagged  him 
at  easy  range.  He  proved  to  be  a  very  fine  specimen 
of  his  species,  and  I  w€nt  to  bed  thoroughly  satisfied. 

The  next  morning  my  servant  overslept  himself, 
with  the  result  that  I  was  awake  and  dressed  long 
before  breakfast  was  ready.  I  determined  not  to 
start  for  the  day's  shoot  without  food,  so  I  took  my 
rifle,  and  went  into  the  forest  to  stroll  about  until 
the  meal  had  been  prepared,  telling  my  boy  I  would 
be  back  in  ten  minutes.  I  had  scarcely  walked  a 
thousand  yards  when,  right  across  the  path,  ahead 
of  me,  I  saw  two  young  koodoo  bulls,  fighting.  I 
could  scarcely  believe  my  eyes.  Here  to  my  hand 
was  the  very  animal  which  I  had  walked  mile  after 
mile  to  shoot,  without  ever  having  a  shot  at  one.  I 
got  the  biggest  of  the  two,  but  he  was,  unfortunately, 
a  very  small  specimen,  his  horns  only  measuring  just 
over  thirty-six  inches.  However,  it  was  better  than 
nothing,  and  I  returned  to  Roseires  that  evening  in 
high  spirits.  I  was  more  glad  still  when,  some  three 
weeks  later,  I  found  that  I  had  to  return  to  Khartoum. 

The  river  had  sunk  steadily  lower  and  lower  as 
the  time  went  on  ;  rains  had  been  reported  from  the 
south  for  some  days,  though  no  effect  of  this  was 
evident  at  the  point  where  we  were  stationed,  and 


•   ^  1 


VARIED   EXPERIENCES  241 

there  seemed  to  be  every  prospect  of  a  low  Nile. 
Then  one  night  we  went  to  bed  with  the  river  as 
usual ;  the  boat  was  lying  at  the  bottom  of  a  high 
bank ;  half-way  up  the  bank  we  had  a  thriving 
vegetable  garden,  and  from  the  windows  of  our  house 
it  was  impossible  to  see  even  the  top  of  the  steamer's 
mast.  When  I  waked  the  next  morning  I  fancied  for 
a  moment  that  I  was  the  victim  of  an  hallucination, 
for  there  opposite  the  door  of  the  house  swung  the 
steamer  on  her  anchor.  The  flood  had  come  at  last, 
and  the  water  had  risen  metres  in  about  eight  hours. 
The  first  rise  is  known  as  the  "  false  "  rise,  and  in- 
variably subsides  within  a  day  or  two  of  its  appear- 
ance. It  is  the  flood  generated  by  the  first  deluge 
in  the  hills  of  Abyssinia,  advance  falls  which  precede 
the  regular  deluge  that  eventually  gives  life  to  Egypt. 
The  river  then  falls  for  about  a  fortnight,  when  the 
steady  rise  of  the  Nile  begins.  The  dark  brown 
flood  which  follows  the  clear  blue  rise  of  the  Nile  in 
Egypt  is  that  of  the  Blue  Nile,  and,  spread  over  the 
face  of  the  country,  it  leaves  a  fertilising  sediment 
which  is  the  redemption  of  the  land.  The  waters  of 
the  White  Nile  are,  on  the  other  hand,  useful  only 
for  purposes  of  irrigation,  and  were  Egypt  to  rely 
solely  upon  the  latter  river,  the  land  would  speedily 
become  barren,  or,  at  least,  much  less  fertile  than  it 
is  at  present.  The  Blue  Nile  flood  comes  down  be- 
tween the  comparatively  narrow  banks  with  tre- 
mendous swiftness,  and  the  coming  of  the  gurgling, 
rushing  waters,  is  an  impressive  sight. 
In  connection  with  the  coming  of   this  flood,  I 


242       FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

remember  ouce  being  out  on  a  shooting  expedi- 
tion about  the  time  when  the  flood  was  expected, 
and  camping  in  a  dried- up  channel  of  the  river 
for  the  night.  At  daybreak  I  was  waked  suddenly 
by  my  servant,  who  shook  me  roughly,  telling 
me  that  the  waters  were  almost  upon  us.  The 
camp  was  awake,  and  already  the  men  were 
busy  loading  the  donkeys,  and  collecting  their  own 
and  my  belongings.  Away  to  the  south  we  could 
hear  a  dull  roar,  as  of  many  waters  gradually  ap- 
proaching, and  we  all  had  an  anxious  few  minutes 
until  at  last  we  were  high  and  dry,  out  of  the  reach 
of  the  highest  flood.  We  must  have  looked  a  party 
of  fools  when  the  cause  of  the  roar  became  apparent. 
Instead  of  a  rush  of  water  at  our  feet,  the  sky  grew 
darker,  and  over  our  heads,  flying  in  the  direction  of 
the  river,  came  milHons  of  small  birds  going  for  their 
annual  holiday  to  the  north.  I  should  be  afraid  to 
estimate  the  numbers  which  passed  in  a  steady 
stream  while  we  watched,  and  for  the  rest  of  the 
day,  stragglers  which  had  been  left  behind  the  main 
body  of  emigrants  passed  wearily  down  the  course 
after  their  swifter  brethren.  They  fly  quickly,  but 
rest  fairly  often ;  and  it  must  be  a  very  bad  time 
for  the  insects  which  inhabit  the  spots  where  these 
rests  take  place.  Hundreds  of  these  birds  fall  dead 
of  exhaustion  yearly,  during  their  long  flights  through 
the  tropics,  but  thousands  again  reach  their  des- 
tination safely,  and  return  with  the  winter.  It  was 
a  most  wonderful  sight,  and  it  impressed  me  as  much 
as  anything  which  I  saw  in  the  Sudan. 


VARIED    EXPERIENCES  243 

Were  the  birds  of  the  Sudan  to  be  entirely  destroyed 
the  country  would  speedily  become  impossible  to  live 
in  ;  even  as  it  is,  the  insect  life  is  one  of  its  greatest 
drawbacks.  At  certain  seasons  of  the  year  an 
enormous  variety  sweep  the  land  like  a  scourge  ;  some 
are  poisonous,  and  all  are  objectionable  in  the  highest 
degree.  The  dread  terror  of  sleeping-sickness  has 
been  traced  to  a  poison  injected  by  a  fly ;  malaria 
fever  is,  of  course,  carried  by  mosquitoes  ;  and,  for 
the  rest,  even  if  they  do  no  actual  harm,  they 
effectually  worry  the  unfortunate  human  who  meets 
them  to  such  an  extent  that  his  life  is  hardly  worth 
living  at  times. 

When  the  flood  begins  in  the  spring,  the  natives 
of  the  upper  regions  of  the  Blue  Nile  prepare  for  their 
journey  to  the  north,  with  whatever  produce  is  con- 
sidered worth  the  taking.  They  build  rafts  of  a  light, 
pithy  wood,  which  abounds  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
and  placing  their  goods  upon  this,  they  mount  on  top  of 
it  and  put  out  to  sea.  The  journey  is  often  a  perilous 
one,  for  it  is  very  difficult  to  steer  this  sort  of  craft, 
and  rocks  and  shoals  are  plentiful.  However,  in  fair 
water,  and  with  a  current  of  some  ten  miles  an  hour, 
the  journey  to  Khartoum  does  not  take  a  very  long 
time,  and  the  mode  of  progression  has  one  great 
advantage  :  there  are  no  fares  to  pay. 

With  the  rising  of  the  waters,  everything  springs 
into  life  and  activity  at  once,  and  the  river  scenes 
are  most  picturesque.  I  have,  in  some  cases,  seen 
as  many  as  thirty  rafts  on  one  reach  of  the  swollen 
waters  at  the  same  time,  each  with  its  steersman, 


244        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

and  sometimes  with  his  family  as  well,  perched  on 
top  of  the  goods  which  are  being  borne  swiftly  to  the 
markets  of  the  north.  One  of  the  greatest  differences 
between  the  natives  of  the  Sudan  and  the  natives  of 
Egypt  is  that  the  former  seem  to  be  possessed  of  an 
inherent  desire  for  change  and  travel,  while  the  latter 
are  content  to  remain  year  after  year  in  their  own 
villages,  and  will  not  move  if  they  can  possibly  avoid 
it,  even  though  the  advantages  of  travel  are  obviously 
great.  I  never  knew  a  Sudanese  servant  who  did  not 
beg  his  master  to  take  him  to  England  when  he  went 
on  leave ;  I  never  knew  an  Egyptian  servant  who 
did  not  raise  difficulties  if  the  proposal  was  mooted. 
It  is  only  natural,  therefore,  that  the  Sudanese  are 
already  obtaining  a  larger  knowledge  of  the  world, 
and  of  the  peoples  of  the  world,  than  are  the  average 
Egyptians,  and  the  latter  will  have  to  work  very  hard 
to  keep  apace  with  the  progress  made  by  the  natives 
of  the  despised  south. 


fN 


CHAPTER   XII 

MILITARY   AND    CIVIL   OFFICIALS 

IN  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  book,  I  have  briefly 
referred  to  the  fact  that  at  the  time  of  my 
arrival  in  the  Sudan,  the  country  was  subject  to  an 
administration  entirely  military.  This  regime  lasted 
for  a  considerable  time,  until  at  last  the  peaceful 
state  of  the  country  appeared  to  warrant  the  gradual 
introduction  of  civil  officials  to  replace  the  soldiers 
who  had  been  occupying  administrative  posts.  No 
one  will  question  the  wisdom  of  the  decision  ;  it  was 
certainly  a  right  and  proper  one  in  every  way.  But 
even  under  the  able  administration  and  watchfulness 
of  the  Sirdar  and  Governor-General,  the  change  was 
in  some  cases  introduced  too  suddenly,  and  in  my 
opinion  the  country  suffered  therefrom. 

An  English  barrister  was  sent  for  and  installed  at 
Khartoum,  and  immediately  the  iron  rule  of  the 
soldiers  was  replaced  by  one  which  almost  seemed 
to  seek  for  cases,  in  which  Englishmen  and  Europeans 
generally  should  be  made  to  suffer  for  offences  against 
the  natives  in  the  newly  instituted  courts.  I  re- 
mained in  the  country  during  the  whole  of  the  first 
period  of  change,  and  it  was  a  remarkable  one. 

It  will  have  been  seen,  from  what  has  already  been 
written,  that  the  average  Sudanie  was  more  or  less 

246 


246        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

of  a  savage,  docile  and  amenable  enough  it  may  be, 
but  still  a  savage,  when  England  and  Egypt  took 
possession  of  his  country  after  the  battle  of  Om- 
durman. 

It  is  not  difficult,  then,  to  imagine  the  effect  which 
a  newly  introduced  and  entirely  strange  code  of  law 
would  have  upon  the  minds  of  these  people,  who, 
not  five  years  before,  looked  upon  leniency  of  treat- 
ment as  weakness,  and  upon  might  as  right.  Shortly 
before  I  left  the  country,  an  Enghshman,  holding  a 
responsible  Government  appointment  in  the  capital, 
was  brought  before  the  English  judge  in  court  on  the 
charge  of  having  ill-treated  his  servant.  It  was 
proved  that  the  assault  had  been  committed ;  the 
boy  had  perpetrated  some  breach  of  discipline  which, 
in  his  master's  opinion,  justified  the  slight  chastise- 
ment which  was  accorded  him.  The  Englishman 
was  fined  ten  piastres  for  the  offence,  and  the  servant 
was  ruined  for  service  for  all  time.  Now,  whatever 
personal  views  one  may  hold  as  to  the  respective 
advantages  or  disadvantages  of  corporal  punishment, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  a  case  such  as  this,  coming 
immediately  on  the  top  of  strict  miUtary  rule  which 
employed  the  old-time  punishment  of  flogging,  could 
not  but  be  detrimental  to  our  interests  in  the  country. 

Even  in  our  own  country  to-day,  it  is  at  times 
considered  necessary  to  resort  to  the  use  of  the  cat, 
a  lawful  method  of  punishment  far  more  severe  than 
the  flogging  of  the  natives  in  the  Sudan.  If  then, 
in  a  land  of  our  boasted  civilization,  we  have  not 
yet  found  any  efficient  substitute  for  the  personal 


MILITARY   AND   CIVIL   OFFICIALS    247 

chastisement  of  olden  days,  how  more  than  necessary 
is  it  that  its  abandonment,  in  the  Sudan,  should  be 
brought  about  with  infinite  caution,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  danger  of  the  native  imagining  that  he 
has  the  law  more  or  less  in  his  own  hands  ? 
The  natives  themselves  do  not  look  upon  their 
kind  as  being  the  equal  of  the  white  man.  It  is 
true  that  some  of  the  missionaries  do  their  best 
to  impress  upon  the  black  and  yellow  races  that  they 
are  in  every  particular  our  equals,  having  the  same 
rights  and  the  same  feelings ;  but  the  native,  in  his 
elemental  state  at  least,  knows  better.  When,  how- 
ever, he  suddenly  finds  that  it  is  in  his  power  to  goad 
the  white  man,  his  former  master  and  friend,  into 
striking  him,  and  then  to  obtain  financial  redress, 
it  is  a  dangerous  moment  for  the  country. 

I  remember  hearing  of  one  case  in  which  the  tourist, 
the  pernicious  Paget  M.P.  tourist,  who  goes  about 
the  world  doing  the  British  flag  all  the  harm  he  can 
in  every  coimtry,  had  interfered.  One  of  the  reises 
on  a  river  steamer  had  been  refractory,  and  in  the 
end  he  had  deliberately  disobeyed  orders.  He  was 
taken  up  on  to  the  deck,  and  awarded  a  richly- 
deserved  "  twenty  of  the  best."  Unfortunately  Mr. 
Paget  appeared  at  the  top  of  the  companion-way  at 
about  the  eighteenth  stroke.  He  fumed  with  rage. 
So  this  was  the  mamier  in  which  the  poor  brother 
black  man  was  treated  by  Englishmen  abroad.  Words 
were  inadequate  to  express  his  indignation.  The 
whole  of  Europe,  ay,  and  the  whole  of  America,  should 
ring  with  the  infamy  of  it  all,  when  he,  the  saviour 


248        FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

of  the  traditions  of  his  country,  should  return  from 
his  travels.  Then  came  what,  in  my  opinion,  was 
a  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  Government  officials  of 
the  Sudan.  They  slurred  the  thing  over,  and  gave 
this  irate  and  ignorant  globe-trotter  what  in  effect 
amounted  to  an  apology.  I  consider  that  this  was 
a  decidedly  ill-advised  course  to  take.  Flogging  in 
that  particular  case  was  necessary  ;  the  Government 
should  have  held  to  their  guns,  and  refused  to  allow 
any  man  like  this,  who  actually  knew  less  than  nothing 
of  the  native  character,  and  of  the  different  con- 
ditions which  prevail  in  the  Sudan  as  opposed  to 
England,  the  satisfaction  of  having  his  words  attended 
to  at  all.  The  matter  should  have  been  explained  to 
him,  and  then,  if  he  failed  to  understand,  he  could 
have  done  what  he  liked — and  no  one  would  have 
been  any  the  worse  for  it. 

At  the  present  moment  there  is  some  dissatisfaction 
expressed  in  certain  official  quarters  as  to  the  treat- 
ment meted  out  by  the  civil  administration  at 
Khartoum  to  some  of  the  officials  in  the  provinces, 
who  are  entirely  responsible  for  the  good  behaviour 
of  the  natives  in  the  districts  wherein  they  serve. 
I  quote  a  case  which  was  mentioned  to  me  in  the 
early  months  of  the  present  year.  A  theft  had  been 
committed  in  one  of  the  outlying  provinces,  and 
the  EngHsh  Inspector,  perhaps  rather  over-zealous 
in  his  attempt  to  capture  the  thief,  arrested  a  man 
upon  whom,  at  the  time,  the  gravest  suspicion  rested, 
though  no  actual  proof  was  to  hand  at  the  time. 
Some  delay,  unavoidable  I  am  told,  occurred  in  the 


MILITARY   AND   CIVIL   OFFICIALS    249 

trial,  and  at  length  the  man  was  sent  to  Khartoum. 
The  evidence,  though  it  all  went  to  prove  the  man's 
guilt,  was  not  sufficient  to  obtain  his  condemnation. 
He  was  finally  acquitted,  and  'publicly  informed  hy 
an  English  Judge  that  the  Inspector  who  had  been 
responsible  for  his  arrest  was  entirely  on  the  wrong 
side  of  the  law  in  having  acted  as  he  had  done,  and 
that  he  would  be  informed  of  his  error  by  the  Court. 

The  deUghted  man  returned  hot  haste  to  his 
village,  and  in  the  face  of  the  people  informed  the 
Inspector  of  what  had  been  said,  and  openly  defied 
him  to  take  any  further  steps  in  the  matter. 

This  is  certainly  a  case  in  which  the  absurdity  of 
applying  the  law  as  it  is  in  civilized  countries  to  a  land 
like  the  Sudan  must  be  evident  to  all.  Imagine  the 
position  which  the  Inspector  will  hold  in  the  eyes  of 
the  natives  whom  he  is  called  upon  to  govern  in  the 
future.  He  has  been  publicly  disgraced,  and  every 
man  in  the  province  knows  it.  He  had  acted  as  he 
thought  best  in  the  interests  of  the  country  which  he 
had  been  engaged  to  serve,  and  this  is  the  result.  It 
will  be  said  by  many  that  it  is  impossible  to  have 
two  laws,  and  this  is,  of  course,  correct  in  theory. 
Such  a  state  of  things  would  be  impossible.  But 
there  was  absolutely  nothing  to  prevent  the  In- 
spector being  told  of  his  error  privately,  and  should 
he  have  erred  in  the  same  direction  on  a  second 
occasion,  he  could  have  left  the  country.  But  what 
possible  good  does  the  Judge  imagine  that  he  has 
achieved  by  his  public  condemnation  of  the  Inspector 
in  Court  ?    Does  he  think  that  it  can  in  any  round- 


250  FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

about  way  strengthen  the  prestige  of  the  British 
administration  in  the  Sudan  ?  Does  he  dream  that 
such  an  avowal  will  be  the  cause  of  less  wrongdoing 
among  the  natives  of  the  district  in  which  the  accused 
man  and  his  Inspector  dwelt  ?  What  is  it  that  makes 
our  English  civilians  commit  such  appalling  errors 
of  judgment  ?  Were  they  lesser  men  one  could 
imagine  that  it  was  done  with  the  idea  of  obtaining 
a  sort  of  cheap  gratitude  from  the  natives  whom  they 
favour.  But  if,  indeed,  this  is  the  case,  they  hopelessly 
fail  in  their  ambitions,  since  the  man  who  errs  in 
favour  of  a  native  against  one  of  his  own  countrymen 
is  immediately  branded  as  a  "  magnoon  "  (madman) 
by  the  very  man  whom  he  has  favoured,  as  well  as  by 
the  rest  of  his  kind.  No  one  will  deny  the  necessity 
for  entirely  transferring  the  rule  of  the  country  from 
military  to  civil  hands  eventually,  but  I,  in  common 
with  most  men  who  have  lived  for  any  length  of  time 
in  the  country,  am  strongly  opposed  to  any  haste 
in  the  proceeding.  The  military  man  has  frequently 
specific  knowledge  which  is  inadequate  to  the  position 
which  he  holds,  but  on  the  other  hand  he  has  been 
learning  the  rule  of  an  iron  discipline  since  the  first 
day  of  his  military  training,  and  there  is  nothing 
which  is  so  calculated  to  turn  the  black  savage  into 
a  respectable  and  hard-working  citizen  as  discipline. 

The  method  employed  by  Sir  Reginald  Wingate 
in  the  draughting  of  a  thoroughly  sound  class  of 
young  English  civilians  to  go  through  the  mill  as 
deputy,  sub,  and  finally,  fully  qualified  inspectors, 
with  the  intention  of  ultimately  giving  them  posts  as 


MILITARY   AND   CIVIL   OFFICIALS    251 

Governors  of  the  various  provinces  is,  without  doubt, 
the  best  one  which  it  would  be  possible  to  employ. 

The  men  arrive  in  the  country  fresh  from  college, 
or  from  a  term  of  special  training,  which  includes  a 
thorough  course  of  Arabic.  They  take  positions 
under  men — usually  soldiers — who  have  been  serving 
in  the  Sudan  for  many  years,  and  who  have  a  thorough 
practical  knowledge  of  the  land  and  people.  The 
result  is  a  man  who  knows  the  native  thoroughly, 
who  can  not  only  speak  the  native  language  well, 
but  can  also  read  and  write  it.  When  the  time  comes 
for  him  to  take  the  reins  of  government  in  his  own 
hands  he  will  be  a  specialist  in  his  job,  thanks  to  his 
early  training ;  he  will  possess  a  truer  knowledge  of 
administration  than  the  soldier  whom  he  supersedes, 
and  what  is  lost  with  the  uniform  and  military  dis- 
cipline will  be  compensated  for  by  an  increased 
efficiency.  But  had  the  Government  acted  with 
haste,  had  one  soldier  been  moved  at  the  beginning 
to  make  place  for  a  civilian  who  was  not  in  every  way 
fitted  for  his  post,  an  almost  irreparable  harm  would 
have  been  done  to  the  new  administration  at  its  very 
formation.  There  are  at  present  two  civil  Mudirs 
or  Governors,  in  the  Sudan ;  though  one  of  these, 
Mr.  Butler,  having  served  with  the  Egyptian  Army, 
with  the  rank  of  Bey,  perhaps  hardly  counts  as  a 
civilian  in  the  native  mind. 

There  is  another  point  which  is  much  discussed 
at  times  concerning  the  military  and  civil  elements 
of  administration  in  the  Sudan.  I  have  heard  it 
said  times  without  number,  and  1  have  seen  letters 


252        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

of  complaint  more  than  once  in  the  local  papers  of 
Egypt  to  the  same  effect,  that  the  military  element 
in  the  country  looks  down  upon  the  world  of  civil 
officialdom.  I  served  the  Government  as  a  civilian 
for  several  years  in  the  Sudan,  during  which  time  I 
met  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  officers  of  the  British 
Army,  and  civilian  employes  of  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment, and  the  conclusions  I  arrived  at  in  regard  to 
the  general  relationship  existing  between  the  two 
elements,  do  not  seem  to  justify  the  constant  com- 
plaints of  which  we  hear.  I  am  speaking  generally, 
and  of  what  I  consider  can  be  taken  as  an  average. 
In  certain  cases,  noticeably  those  of  young  officers 
who  ranked  as  sub-lieutenants  at  home,  and  who 
come  out  to  the  Sudan  with  the  rank  and  title  of 
Majors  in  the  Egyptian  Army,  it  is  true  that  they  give 
way  to  what  is  known  as  ''  side,"  and  are,  indeed, 
rather  objectionable  characters.  But  in  fair  play  to 
these  youngsters,  it  is  only  right  to  say  that  it 
usually  gets  knocked  out  of  them  before  they  have 
been  in  the  country  for  many  months,  and  they  end 
up  by  being  as  easy  to  get  on  with  officially  as  socially. 
I  can  only  recall  one  case  of  an  officer  holding  the 
rank  of  Captain  who  could  be  classed  fairly  as  a  snob, 
and  he  was  one  of  the  worst  description.  But  there 
is  an  excuse  even  for  him.  He  belonged  to  a  regiment 
which  does  not,  perhaps,  take  quite  such  a  high 
standing  in  the  British  Army  as  certain  others ; 
though  to  be  a  commissioned  man  in  any  regiment 
of  His  Majesty's  Army  is  in  itself  an  honour  of  which 
any  man  might  justly  be  proud.    He  was  the  sort  of 


MILITARY   AND    CIVIL   OFFICIALS    253 

person  who  would  be  on  the  best  of  terms  for  months 
with  a  civiUan  of  low  ranking  in  the  Government, 
provided  that  there  was  no  one  by  to  see.  Then  you 
would  meet  him  among  his  elect,  and  you  would  be 
surprised  to  hear  "  Mr."  tacked  on  to  your  name 
and  to  note  the  care  with  which  he  avoided  your  eye. 
But  with  the  exception  of  this  fair-haired  gentleman, 
I  do  not  recall  any  other  case  at  all  where  the  military 
spirit  has  seen  fit  to  lord  it  over  the  civilians.  As 
regards  social  affairs,  I  should  say  that  if  the  military 
and  civil  employes  of  the  Government  are  more  or 
less  apart  and  distinct,  as  some  of  the  latter  complain 
is  the  case,  there  is  absolutely  no  reason  why  it  should 
be  otherwise.  As  a  general  rule  a  man  prefers  the 
company  of  another  who  has  some  of  the  same  in- 
terests to  talk  over  with  him.  It  is,  after  all,  a  poor 
compliment  that  the  complaining  civilian  pays  to 
his  fellows  in  Khartoum,  when  he  is  constantly 
lamenting  the  fact  that  all  his  friends  are  not  military. 
If  the  latter  are  sufiicient  unto  themselves,  why  not 
the  former  ? 

One  of  the  first  departments  to  be  handed  over  to 
civilian  control  was  the  medical,  which  had  hitherto 
been  purely  military.  A  doctor  was  brought  out 
from  England,  and  placed  in  charge  of  what  was 
called  the  Sudan  Civil  Medical  Department,  all  the 
doctors  on  the  staff  of  which  were  civilians.  The 
doctor  who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  department 
was  undoubtedly  a  very  clever  man  at  his  work,  and 
had  taken  the  best  degrees  which  it  was  possible  for 
him  to  hold  in  his  profession,  while  his  assistants 


254        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

were,  one  and  all,  good  men.  As  professional  men, 
they  were  probably  ahead  of  the  R.A.M.C.  which 
they  superseded,  but  the  manner  in  which  the  depart- 
ment was  run  gave  a  striking  example  of  the  in- 
efficiency of  men  thus  introduced  into  a  country 
which  was  absolutely  strange  to  them,  to  organise 
and  carry  out  an  effective  control. 

In  the  old  days  I  had  been  for  some  considerable 
time  an  inmate  of  the  military  hospital  in  Omdurman, 
which  had  been  converted  to  this  purpose  as  soon  as 
the  ladies  of  the  Khalifa's  harem  had  been  dislodged 
from  the  building.  During  the  whole  of  the  time  I 
spent  in  this  place  I  never  had  the  slightest  cause 
for  complaint ;  the  servants  were  soft-footed  and 
attentive,  and  one's  own  servant  was  always  per- 
mitted to  be  at  hand  in  case  he  was  required.  At  the 
first  glimmer  of  dawn,  tea,  if  one  was  allowed  it, 
or  other  drink,  was  brought  in,  and  one's  friends 
could  visit  one  at  whatever  time  was  convenient  to 
them,  except,  of  course,  when  the  doctor  was  in 
actual  attendance. 

At  a  later  date  it  was  my  ill-fortune  to  be  sent  to 
the  new  civil  hospital  at  Khartoum.  The  latter 
building  was  infinitely  more  comfortable  than  the 
former ;  it  was  fitted  with  broad,  cool  verandahs, 
and  the  rooms  were  lofty  and  airy.  Nevertheless, 
I  would  much  prefer  to  spend  a  week  in  the  old 
hospital,  under  the  old  treatment,  than  a  day  and 
a  night  in  the  new,  under  the  code  of  arrangements 
introduced,  apparently,  direct  from  some  of  the 
hospital   wards  of  London.     It  was,   perhaps,   not 


MILITARY   AND   CIVIL   OFFICIALS    255 

entirely  the  doctors'  fault  that  everything  they  did 
seemed  purposely  designed  to  annoy  one ;  they  had 
come  fresh  into  the  country,  carrying  the  lessons  of 
hospital  discipline  they  had  learnt  in  London  to 
the  tropics  of  the  Sudan  ;  they  did  their  best,  but 
it  was  a  bad  best  for  the  unfortunate  patient  who 
came  under  their  charge.  Presumably  tea  is  not 
served  until  7  a.m.  in  the  hospitals  of  London ;  I 
know  that  it  was  not  served  until  that  hour  in  the 
Sudan.  My  nights  were  spent  in  a  perpetual  state  of 
semi-delirium,  which  lasted  till  the  rising  dawn, 
when  it  would  be  replaced  by  an  intense  desire  for 
the  early  cup  of  tea,  which  is  always  the  first  thing 
one  thinks  about  in  the  Sudan.  The  first  morning 
I  called  the  servant  and  ordered  it.  He  looked  at  me 
as  though  only  half  understanding,  but  went  away, 
as  I  thought,  to  fetch  it.  After  a  prolonged  interval 
of  waiting,  I  called  again,  and  repeated  my  request. 
Then  he  told  me  that  it  was  never  brought  to  patients 
until  seven  o'clock — hours  after  the  first  heat  of  the 
day  had  settled  down  upon  the  land — and  so  I  waited. 
That  first  morning  of  waiting  is  among  the  most 
painful  of  my  recollections  of  the  Sudan.  It  was 
then  only  just  after  five  o'clock,  and  for  two  mortal 
hours  I  lay  and  twisted  and  turned  on  my  bed, 
parched  with  thirst,  unable  to  drink  water,  as  it 
was  against  the  doctor's  orders,  unable  to  obtain 
tea  for  the  same  reason  !  My  own  boy  was  not  due 
to  come  that  morning  until  eight  o'clock,  so  I  had  no 
hope  of  relief,  for  the  sacred  rules  of  the  institution 
were  not  to  be  altered  to  suit  the  whim  of  a  patient. 


256        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

Another  rule  introduced  was  to  the  efiect  that 
friends  could  not  visit  a  patient  until  the  after- 
noon, so  the  morning  was  passed  in  utter  solitude, 
except  for  the  few  minutes  that  it  took  to  clean  the 
room,  and  for  the  visit  of  the  doctor,  who,  by  the 
way,  also  forbade  me  to  smoke,  not  for  reasons  of 
health,  but  because  it  interfered  with  his  established 
rules.  I  never  obeyed  this  injunction  ;  I  never  made 
the  slightest  pretence  of  doing  so  ;  it  was  the  last 
straw.  When  the  afternoon  came  and  brought  with 
it  any  of  your  friends,  you  knew  that,  in  coming  to 
you,  they  were  giving  up  their  much-looked-forward- 
to  game  of  polo,  cricket,  or  tennis,  whereas  they  might 
have  snatched  a  few  minutes  in  the  morning  without 
any  dijficulty.  I  hear  that  the  system  is  altered  again 
now,  and  of  this  I  am  truly  thankful,  for  the  sake  of 
the  other  sick  men  who  must  follow  into  the  hospital 
at  Khartoum.  The  regime  instituted  by  the  well- 
meaning  but  narrow-minded  officialdom  of  the  young 
English  doctors  was  as  cruel  as  it  was  unnecessary, 
and  it  could  surely  have  done  no  good  to  the  patient. 
A  friend  of  mine,  who  had  been  in  that  hospital  nearly 
two  years  after  I  left  the  country,  recently  told  me 
of  the  troubles  he  had  had  when  within  its  walls. 
The  attendant  who  was  told  off  to  wait  on  him  was 
a  heavy-footed,  clumsy  black,  who  in  some  extra- 
ordinary manner  managed  to  kick  or  shove  the 
patient's  bed  every  time  he  passed  it.  After  bearing 
it  for  as  long  as  was  possible,  he  made  an  official 
complaint  to  the  head  of  the  hospital,  and  was 
informed  that  it  was  impossible  to  alter  the  state  of 


MILITARY   AND   CIVIL   OFFICIALS    257 

things,  since  if  the  man  was  remonstrated  with  he 
would  probably  be  annoyed,  and  would  leave,  and 
the  difficulty  of  obtaining  men  for  hospital  work 
was  very  great !  Later,  the  same  man  was  seen, 
by  the  patient's  servant,  gulping  down  tea  out  of  the 
cup  which  was  on  its  way  to  his  master.  Complaint 
was  again  made,  and  after  many  delays  in  the  in- 
quiries which  followed,  the  doctor  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  servant  "  might  have  had  a 
grudge  against  the  other,  and  have  invented  the  tale  in 
order  to  get  him  into  trouble."    So  nothing  was  done. 

Innumerable  instances  might  be  given  to  show 
the  completeness  of  the  folly  which  attempts  to 
make  the  same  rules  apply  in  the  Sudan  as  in  England ; 
but  the  foregoing  will  be  sufficient  to  prove  the 
failure  which  attended  the  attempt  in  this  particular 
case.  The  same  thing  applies  in  departments  which 
more  largely  affect  the  nation.  Hospital  troubles 
only  affect  those  who  have  the  misfortune  to  be  sent 
there,  but  in  other  cases,  where  the  same  sort  of 
thing  happens  in  regard  to  questions  which  affect 
even  a  small  province,  the  evil  of  failure  permeates 
the  entire  community,  and  acts  as  a  drag  upon  the 
march  of  effective  civilisation.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  doctors  of  this  civil  corps  are,  one  and  all,  hard- 
working and  thoroughly  capable  men,  and  they  are 
the  adored  of  the  natives.  The  trust  which  the 
average  Sudanie  showers  upon  the  English  medicine- 
man is  almost  pathetic  at  times.  I  have  seen  women 
deformed,  or  men  in  the  last  stages  of  incurable 
diseases  which  have  been  eating  into  their  vitals 


258         FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

for  the  greater  part  of  their  miserable  lifetime, 
fight  and  squabble  in  order  to  obtain  the  attention 
of  the  doctor  when  he  appears  in  their  district.  If 
faith  were  indeed  a  cure,  as  Christian  Scientists 
would  have  us  believe,  then  there  would  be  un- 
bounded miracles  performed  in  the  Egyptian  Sudan. 
I  have  seen  a  kindly  young  doctor,  unable  to  resist 
the  appeal  in  the  eyes  of  an  aged  woman  born  with  a 
deformed  hand,  examine  it  with  the  closest  attention, 
and  give  her  a  bottle  of  some  harmless  physic,  in 
order  to  cheer  her  failing  days.  She  departed  com- 
forted, and  the  dusk  of  her  life  was  bright  with  hope 
and  trust. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of  the  Su- 
danese do  not  trust  the  Egyptian  doctor,  clever 
though  he  may  be,  and,  indeed,  usually  is.  They 
always  carefully  preserve  the  medicine  proffered, 
until  such  time  as  they  may  show  it  to  an  Englishman, 
be  he  a  colonel  or  a  coal-heaver,  and  ask  him  whether 
it  is  well  to  take  it.  In  some  ways  they  have  the 
trusting  simplicity  of  childhood,  and,  thank  God, 
their  trust  in  the  Englishman  has  never,  to  my 
knowledge,  been  openly  violated.  There  are  three 
characteristics  which  the  natives  affirm  we  possess. 
We  have  neither  rehgion,  nor  fear,  neither  can  we 
tell  a  lie.  The  first  of  these  attributes  we  have,  of 
course,  gained  because  we  do  not  pray  openly  before 
men  at  stated  times  of  the  day,  as  the  Mohammedans 
do,  neither  do  we  conform  to  any  of  the  outward 
ceremonies  such  as  they  have  been  accustomed  to 
see  ;   the  other  two,  let  us  hope,  we  deserve. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS 

IN  all  Eastern  countries,  the  native  hakims,  or 
doctors,  play  a  very  important  part,  and  the 
Sudan  is  no  exception  to  this  rule.  The  belief  which 
the  average  Sudanie  had  in  the  medical  knowledge 
of  these  men  was  formerly  enormous.  Numbers  of 
them  were  nothing  more  than  smart  quacks,  pos- 
sessing no  actual  knowledge  of  disease  and  its  treat- 
ment at  all,  but  some  were,  on  the  other  hand,  familiar 
with  a  great  variety  of  herbs  and  roots  which  were 
possessed  of  heahng  properties. 

In  the  "  Third  Report  of  the  Welcome  Research 
Laboratories  at  the  Gordon  Memorial  College  at 
Khartoum,"  edited  by  the  Director,  Dr.  Andrew 
Balfour,  m.d.,  b.sc,  f.r.c.p.,  d.p.h.,  etc.,  a  most 
interesting  account  of  the  former  practice  of  medicine 
in  the  Sudan  is  given  by  Bimbashi  R.  G.  Ander- 
son, M.R.C.S.,  L.R.C.P.,  R.A.M.c.  ;  the  P.M.O.  of  the 
Egyptian  Medical  Corps  at  Kordofan,  and  others. 

In  the  chapters  contributed  by  Bimbashi  Anderson, 
some  of  the  principal  superstitions  of  the  natives  of 
the  Kordofan  district  are  treated  with  exhaustively, 
and  it  will  be  evident  to  all  who  read  it,  how  very 
difficult  was  the  task  of  the  English  who  had  to 

259 


260        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

alienate  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  from  their 
former  superstitions  before  medical  science  could  be 
applied  to  them  with  any  success.  The  belief  in 
the  evil  eye,  and  in  the  eternal  presence  of  a  host 
of  evil  spirits,  who  are  perpetually  at  hand  to  do 
harm  to  those  people  who  are  not  in  possession  of 
charms  to  ward  off  their  attentions,  is  firmly  fixed 
in  the  native  mind.  This  belief  has  been  the  cause 
of  great  wealth  to  the  "  holy  men  "  of  the  Sudan  for 
generations. 

I  have  myself  witnessed  the  operation  undertaken 
to  expel  an  evil  spirit  from  the  heart  of  a  woman 
supposed  to  be  possessed,  though  it  was  difficult  to 
follow  exactly  what  happened  from  the  distance  at 
which  I  had  necessarily  to  remain  from  the  scene 
of  the  operation.  One  thing,  however,  impressed  me 
greatly,  and  that  was  the  rough  treatment  which  it 
was  apparently  necessary  to  give  the  body  in  order 
that  the  soul  might  be  relieved.  At  a  particularly 
resounding  yell  on  the  part  of  the  unfortunate  woman, 
my  boy  informed  me  that  the  holy  men  were  putting 
salt  in  her  eyes,  in  order  to  make  things  a  little  more 
uncomfortable  for  the  lurking  devil.  It  evidently 
had  the  desired  effect,  for  a  few  moments  later,  when 
the  operation  was  about  to  be  repeated,  the  lady 
sprang  up,  shouting  that  the  spirit  had  left  her,  and 
the  rest  of  the  afternoon  was  spent  in  rejoicing.  I 
noticed,  too,  that  it  was  a  curious  fact  that  these  evil 
spirits  were  much  more  prone  to  take  refuge  in  the 
heart  of  a  woman  than  of  a  man,  and  I  could  not 
but  wonder  whether  the  pain  of  the  ejection  might 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS      261 

not  have  acted  as  a  stimulant  to  the  man  in  forcing 
him  to  repel  the  attacks  of  any  wandering  spirits 
which  might  happen  to  be  about. 

When  one  comes  to  consider  the  appalling  ignorance 
regarding  medical  matters  which  prevailed  in  the 
Sudan  prior  to  the  coming  of  the  English,  it  cannot 
fail  to  strike  one  as  being  wonderful  that  so  many  of 
the  tribe  were  left  alive.  In  many  cases  maladies 
would  yield  to  the  herbal  treatment  of  the  doctors, 
but  in  cases  of  more  serious  disease,  the  native 
appears  to  have  been  without  any  knowledge  which 
might  be  turned  to  good  account,  and  what  knowledge 
he  had  was  indeed  calculated  to  do  more  harm  than 
good.  The  garad,  which  is  the  fruit  of  the  sunt  tree 
{Acacia  arahica),  is  perhaps  the  most  universally 
used  medicine  in  the  Sudan,  and  is  applied  to  all 
sorts  of  diseases.  When  in  doubt,  use  the  garad, 
appears  to  have  been  the  motto  of  the  hakims.  The 
faith  cure,  which  is  one  of  the  main  principles  of  the 
doctrine  known  as  Christian  Science,  was  also  one 
of  the  main  doctrines  of  the  Sudanese.  An  inter- 
cessor, one  of  the  holy  men  of  the  sick  man's  district, 
was  sought  after,  and  large  sums  of  money  were  paid 
for  his  prayers  and  incantations.  There  are  many 
men  in  the  Sudan  at  the  present  time  who  have 
spent  the  greater  portion  of  their  lives  waiting  in 
absolute  faith  for  cures,  which  would  have  been 
miraculous  indeed  had  they  taken  place. 

Many  of  these  men  have  been  cured  at  the  hands 
of  British  and  Egyptian  surgeons,  and  little  by  little 
the  faith  in  the  men  who  had  previously  lived  on  the 


262        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

credulity  of  the  suffering  natives  is  diminishing.  The 
people,  at  least  in  the  more  remote  districts,  were 
children  in  the  hands  of  the  clever  and  unscrupulous 
me^  who  had  somehow  earned  a  reputation  of 
holiness.  There  are  innumerable  instances  of  this ; 
of  men  who  have  regularly  paid  tribute  of  more 
than  half  their  earnings  to  the  holy  man  in  the  hope 
of  being  relieved  of  some  disease ;  of  women  who 
would  give  their  last  possession  in  order  to  avert  the 
evil  eye  of  a  supposed  witch,  or  to  obtain  the  prayers 
of  the  holy  against  the  onslaughts  of  these  evil  spirits 
which  are  never  inactive  in  their  midst.  And  though 
the  native  has  proved  himself  to  be  ready  to  accept 
the  skill  of  the  trained  doctors  who  have  arrived  in 
the  country,  it  will  take  years  to  destroy  the  power  of 
the  old  superstitions  in  relation  to  disease  which 
have  become  so  firmly  rooted  in  their  minds.  It  is 
hard  to  find  anything  that  is  too  great  a  tax  upon 
their  credulity,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the  holy  men 
will  lose  any  opportunity  of  fostering,  to  the  greatest 
extent  in  their  power,  the  beliefs  which  have  filled 
their  pockets  so  well  in  the  past. 

A  volume  might  easily  be  filled  with  descriptions 
of  the  various  charms  in  common  use  among  the 
Sudanese. 

A  striking  instance  of  superstition,  in  which  an 
Egyptian  officer  was  its  victim,  came  directly  under 
my  notice  the  first  time  that  I  went  as  far  as  Kenessa, 
the  old  Catholic  Mission  station  on  the  White  Nile, 
south  of  the  sudd.  Some  weeks  before  I  left  Khar- 
toum, a  party  of  woodcutters  had  been  sent  up  to  the 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS       263 

station ;  they  were  for  the  most  part  the  scum  of 
Omdurman,  men  who  would  neither  work  nor  conform 
to  the  laws  of  the  land.  They  were  sent  up  under 
the  charge  of  an  Egyptian  officer  and  a  small  armed 
picket.  For  the  first  few  weeks  all  went  well,  but  the 
officer,  terrified  out  of  his  Hfe  by  the  responsibihty 
which  lay  upon  his  shoulders,  treated  the  men  more 
as  masters  than  as  prisoners,  with  the  result  that 
things  speedily  took  a  very  nasty  turn,  and  in  the 
end  the  party  mutinied.  He  attempted  to  get  them 
to  work  by  gentle  persuasion,  but  failed  ignominiously, 
with  the  result  that  the  next  day — the  morning  of  the 
day  upon  which  I  arrived  at  the  station — the  men 
had  cut  their  chains  and  escaped  under  the  very 
noses  of  the  guard.  The  officer,  he  was  only  a 
youngster,  came  on  board  in  tears  when  the  steamer 
stopped  :  "  Allah  witness,  he  had  done  all  that  was 
possible  to  prevent  the  trouble.  He  had  treated  the 
prisoners  as  brothers." 

It  was  some  time  before  I  could  get  at  the  rights  of 
the  case,  and  then  I  asked  why  the  soldiers  of  the 
guard,  or  the  officer  himself,  had  not  fired.  He  turned 
a  mournful  face  to  me.  "  What  would  have  been 
the  use  of  wasting  ammunition  ?  Every  man  of  the 
party  was  wearing  charms  which  would  render  them 
impervious  to  rifle-shot  or  sword- thrust !  " 

Now  it  is  impossible  to  actually  blame  the  man 
for  his  adherence  to  a  belief  which  had  been  drilled 
into  his  mind  since  he  was  first  able  to  think  at  all, 
but  it  reveals  a  rather  pitiful  state  of  affairs  if  officers 
of  the  Egyptian  army  are  to  hold  such  views  as  this. 


•204        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  but  what  this  same 
man  would  have  fought  like  a  lion  in  the  tightest 
corner,  had  there  been  a  British  officer  present  to  set 
him  the  example  of  courage ;  all  he  lacked  was  the 
initiative  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  superstition 
in  which  he  had  become  enmeshed. 

Again,  to  give  an  example  of  superstition  among 
the  Sudanese  themselves,  I  found  a  startHng  case  of 
it  in  one  of  my  servants,  who  was  the  last  man  of  his 
race  whom  I  should  have  expected  to  have  retained  it. 
In  every  other  respect  he  was  quite  the  most  en- 
lightened of  the  illiterate  Sudanese  that  I  came  across, 
but  even  he  was  not  impervious  to  the  alluring  charm 
of  superstition. 

I  had  shot  a  crocodile,  and  the  boy  came  and  begged 
me  to  give  him  the  four  claws  of  the  reptile.  This 
was  before  the  men  had  brought  it  on  board  from 
the  bank  on  which  it  lay  dead,  and  in  making  his 
request  the  lad  added  that  should  it  prove  to  be  a 
female  he  should  not  require  the  claws,  but  only  if  it 
were  a  full-grown  male.  I  cross-questioned  him  as  to 
the  reason  why  he  was  so  keen  on  acquiring  them, 
and  bit  by  bit  I  got  at  the  truth  of  the  story.  He 
had  recently  been  married,  and  was  living  in  the 
hopes  of  becoming  a  father  at  no  very  distant  date, 
and  he  wished  to  obtain  the  claws  in  order  to  attach 
them  to  the  wrists  and  ankles  of  his  wife  before  the 
child  was  born.  Were  this  done,  and  suitable  in- 
cantations pronounced,  the  boy,  should  it  prove 
to  be  a  man  child,  would  be  born  with  both  the 
strength  and  the  cunning  of  the  crocodile.     Some- 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS      265 

times,  he  assured  me  with  the  greatest  faith,  when 
the  charm  had  acted  the  most  successfully,  the  boy 
would  be  born  with  webbed  hands,  something  similar 
to  the  foot  of  a  crocodile.  He  was  rather  inclined 
to  be  hurt  at  the  manner  in  which  I  received  his  news, 
and  hastened  to  inform  me  that  he  could  bring  me 
a  dozen  children  with  webbed  hands  from  his  own 
village  in  order  to  prove  the  truth  of  his  assertion. 
I  expressed  a  great  desire  to  meet  them,  but  though 
on  several  subsequent  occasions  I  reminded  him  of 
this  offer,  luck  was  never  in  his  way,  and  the  particular 
children  were  always  away  in  some  distant  part  of 
the  Sudan  when  he  visited  his  village  ! 

Again,  on  a  later  occasion,  he  told  me  with  all  the 
simplicity  of  a  great  and  unquestioning  belief,  of 
the  wonderful  things  which  had  happened  to  a  small 
boy,  a  cousin  of  his.  There  was  no  superstition  in  this 
tale,  and  I  give  it  simply  as  an  instance  of  the  re- 
markable credulity  of  his  race. 

In  some  parts  of  the  Sudan  the  inhabitants  cap- 
ture cranes  by  digging  a  pit  of  a  sufficient  depth  to 
take  a  small  boy.  He  waits,  half  smothered  by  a 
carpet  of  leaves  above  his  head,  until  such  time  as  a 
crane  deems  fit  to  advance  to  taste  of  the  food  which 
is  liberally  spread  about  in  the  vicinity  of  the  boy. 
Then,  when  it  is  near  enough,  the  lad  snatches  at 
its  leg  and  holds  tight,  until  others  from  the  village 
come  to  kill  it  and  release  him  of  his  charge.  Ac- 
cording to  Mohammed,  his  small  cousin  spent  many 
a  weary  hour  in  this  wise,  and  captured  many  birds 
for  bis  family,  until  one  day  the  end  was  disaster. 


2GG        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

He  had,  as  usual,  been  placed  in  his  pit,  his  head 
covered  with  leaves,  and  after  a  very  short  wait 
one  of  the  biggest  cranes  which  had  ever  been  seen 
approached  him.  He  grabbed  at  the  bird's  leg,  and 
got  a  firm  hold,  yelling  in  the  meanwhile  in  the  usual 
manner  for  assistance  from  the  village.  But  just  as 
the  eager  reHef  party  appeared  on  the  scene,  the  bird 
made  a  strenuous  effort  to  rise,  and  so  great  was  its 
strength  that  it  raised  the  boy  from  his  pit,  and  the 
last  thing  that  his  horrified  relations  saw  of  him  at 
the  time,  was  that  he  was  being  swiftly  carried  away 
in  a  northerly  direction,  still  clinging  bravely  to  the 
bird's  leg. 

This  part  of  the  performance  my  boy  assured  me 
was  seen  by  half  the  inhabitants  of  the  village,  the 
rest  was  imparted  to  him  by  his  cousin  himself,  so 
that  there  could  be  no  possible  doubt  as  to  the  truth 
of  the  story  !  After  flying  for  some  miles,  hanging  on 
as  best  he  might  to  the  leg  of  the  giant  bird,  the  boy 
began  to  tire,  and  at  length  succeeded  in  raising  him- 
self, inch  by  inch,  to  its  back,  where  he  rode  in  com- 
fort, seated  astride  behind  the  wings.  Just  as  the 
sun  set  the  bird  began  to  swoop  down  towards  earth, 
and  eventually  landed  the  lad  in  a  wonderful  city, 
where  the  maids  were  as  the  houris  promised  for  the 
Mohammedan's  paradise,  and  where  there  was  never 
want,  or  cold,  or  sand-storms.  At  first  the  lad  was 
pleased,  and  he  was  treated  as  a  prince  by  the  people, 
but  as  time  went  on  he  began  to  weary  of  his  long 
sojourn  from  home,  and  each  night  would  mount 
to  the  roof  of  the  palace  in  which  he  was  living,  and 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS       267 

strain  his  eyes  in  the  direction  in  which  he  imagined 
his  home  to  be.  Then,  one  night,  as  his  yearning 
for  the  village  of  his  people  grew  almost  insupportable, 
the  crane  appeared  and  stood  beside  him  on  the  roof, 
invitation  in  its  attitude. 

Once  more  the  boy  mounted  his  flying  machine, 
and  the  next  morning  he  was  safely  landed  in  the 
village  of  his  birth,  but  when  he  turned  to  fetch  food 
for  the  crane  it  had  disappeared,  and  was  never  seen 
again.  But  to  this  day  no  cranes  are  caught  by 
small  boys  of  that  village,  and  the  disused  pits  are 
filled  with  sand. 

This  story  was  told  to  me  with  many  ejaculations 
to  Allah  to  witness  its  truth,  and  I  honestly  think 
that  my  servant  had  come  to  believe  it,  though 
whether  from  the  fact  that  he  had  probably  told  that 
tale  to  select  gatherings  some  hundreds  of  times,  or 
whether  he  had  beheved  it  from  the  first,  I  am  unable 
to  say.  The  days  of  the  "'  Arabian  Nights  "  come 
very  near  to  one  on  occasions  like  these ;  when  you 
can  succeed  in  inducing  the  natives  to  sink  the  pre- 
judices of  race  and  creed  and  indulge  in  the  tellmg 
of  stories  such  as  are  told  night  after  night  to  inter- 
ested crowds  in  every  place  where  the  natives  fore- 
gather. 

There  is  something  enormously  attractive  in  the 
simplicity  of  such  beliefs,  and  it  is  impossible  to  sub- 
due an  occasional  pang  of  regret  that  it  has  all  to  go 
in  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  practical  common 
sense ;  to  be  ultimately  crushed  out  of  existence 
altogether  by  the  rolling  wheels  of  civilisation. 


208        FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

The  professional  story-teller  still  reaps  a  com- 
fortable living  by  his  art,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  he 
will  soon  pass  away,  since  even  with  the  growth  of 
education,  and  the  consequent  increase  in  the  number 
of  those  who  can  read  and  write,  the  imaginings  of 
these  people  will  retain  their  hold  upon  the  masses 
for  many  years  to  come. 

Speaking  of  them  generally,  I  should  say  that  the 
Sudanese  are  a  romantic  race.  A  great  number 
of  them  live  almost  entirely  in  the  unknown  regions 
of  their  dreams,  where  there  are  no  mosquitoes,  and 
where  their  needs  are  attended  to  by  innumerable 
houris  of  incomparable  beauty.  In  speaking  of 
beauty,  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  average  man  of  the 
country  can  see  no  attraction  in  our  most  beautiful 
women  until  he  has  had  time  to  overcome  the  strange- 
ness of  colour.  The  women,  too,  are  just  the  same 
in  the  more  isolated  portions  of  the  country,  where 
white  men  are  not  common.  Indeed,  the  women, 
especially  those  who  have  not  seen  many  white  men, 
regard  them  with  feelings  of  repulsion,  no  matter  how 
handsome  they  may  be  considered  according  to  the 
European  standard.  I  recollect  once  meeting  two 
women  from  one  of  the  interior  villages  of  the  south. 
They  stood  and  regarded  my  party — one  of  the  men 
with  me  was  strikingly  handsome — with  the  most 
infinite  disgust,  and  eventually,  after  a  prolonged 
scrutiny,  they  turned  away  with  the  ejaculation, 
"  TJgJi !  Ahyaad."  The  first  word  is  equally  ex- 
pressive in  English ;  the  second  means  "  white." 
But  it  does  not  take  a  long  time  to  accustom  them 


Photo  by  C.-tplaiii  II    riianii. 


A  soi;tiiki;\  uki.i.ic 


11.   268 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS       269 

to  the  colour,  and  then  they  greatly  appreciate  being 
spoken  to  by  a  white  man.  They  are  very  outspoken 
in  their  admiration,  and  I  was  told  on  many  occasions 
by  women  of  the  country  that  I  "  had  a  neck  like  a 
gazelle."  Wearing  no  collar,  and  with  a  somewhat 
abnormally  long  neck,  it  took  some  time  to  realise 
that  their  compliments  were  not  sarcastic,  but  I 
think  that  they  really  meant  what  they  said,  and 
I  rejoice  accordingly. 

The  two  chief  features  in  a  man  which  have  the 
greatest  attraction  for  them  are  size  and  strength  ; 
this  is,  of  course,  very  natural,  for  until  recently  it 
was  only  the  strong  man  who  succeeded  in  life,  the 
weak  had  to  take  what  was  left  to  him,  with  thank- 
ful heart,  or  go  without  anything  at  all. 

Children,  especially  boys,  have  a  glorious  time, 
and  are  the  adored  of  all.  There  is  nothing  which 
a  Sudanese  father  will  not  do  for  his  son,  and  the 
wonder  is  that  they  are  not  all  hopelessly  spoilt,  but 
I  do  not  ever  remember  seeing  a  boy  who  was  the 
worse  for  the  petting  he  received,  or  the  licence  which 
he  was  granted.  They  are,  boys  and  girls  alike, 
remarkably  well-behaved  as  a  rule,  and  one  very 
seldom  hears  them  crying.  On  one  occasion  when 
I  left  Khartoum  for  the  south,  a  small  girl  aged 
about  eight  or  ten  years  came  on  board,  thinking 
that  we  were  going  to  Omdurman  only.  The  mistake 
was  not  discovered  by  anyone  until  we  were  some 
miles  on  our  journey,  and  I  did  not  hear  of  it  until 
we  were  nearly  at  Fashoda,  when  I  happened  to 
notice  that  the  child  did  not  appear  to  belong  to 


270        FITR   Yl^.ARS    IN    THE   SUDAN 

anyone  in  particular.  She  had  sat  on  the  barge  we 
were  towing  for  some  hours,  waiting  for  Omdurman, 
then,  when  she  discovered  her  mistake,  she  decided, 
with  all  the  philosophy  of  her  race,  that  it  was  no 
good  crying  now  that  the  harm  was  done,  and  so 
calmly  settled  down  for  the  round  journey  to  Gondo- 
koro  and  back,  without  a  tear.  The  people  on  board 
who  discovered  her  mistake  in  the  first  place,  feared 
to  tell  me  of  it,  and  hoped  that  the  return  journey 
should  be  made  without  the  matter  being  called  to  my 
attention.  I  suppose  they  thought  I  might  want  to 
charge  her  people  with  her  fare. 

Both  boys  and  girls  are  circumcised  in  the  northern 
districts  of  the  Sudan,  and  the  operation  is  carried 
out  with  great  ceremony,  especially  in  the  case  of 
boys.  Invitations  are  issued  to  all  the  neighbouring 
villages,  and  it  is  usual  for  each  visitor  to  bring  a 
present  to  the  parents  of  the  child  who  is  to  be 
operated  upon.  In  many  cases  it  is  arranged  that 
several  children  are  to  be  circumcised  together,  in 
which  event  an  enormous  crowd  turns  up,  and  there 
is  much  excitement  among  the  visitors,  each  person 
fighting  to  obtain  the  best  view.  The  boy  usually 
rides  through  the  streets  before  the  ceremony,  and  is 
attended  by  a  following  of  his  relatives.  During  the 
operation  he  waves  a  whip  in  his  hand  in  order  to 
prove  his  courage,  and  to  show  that  pain  has  no  effect 
upon  him.  The  age  at  which  the  ceremony  takes 
place  is  usually  five  or  six  years. 

The  same  ceremony  is  performed  upon  girls  of 
about  a  similar  age,  but  it  is  not  regarded  as  an  event 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS       271 

of  much  importance,  and  is  frequently  performed 
with  little  or  no  ceremony.  The  practice  in  the  cases 
of  females  is  much  to  be  discouraged. 

Unfortunately,  I  was  never  present  at  a  wedding 
ceremony  in  the  Sudan  ;  it  is  one  which  is  attended 
with  much  pomp,  and  in  cases  where  the  contracting 
parties  are  well  provided  with  money,  feasting  is  kept 
up  for  a  full  week.  The  wedding  of  my  boy  Mo- 
hammed was,  from  his  own  account,  a  very  grand 
affair.  He  became  engaged  when  he  had  been  in  my 
service  for  a  little  over  a  year,  and  the  date  of  his 
wedding  was  fixed  for  the  early  period  of  my  first 
subsequent  leave.  His  work  in  my  service  had  been 
so  unfailingly  good,  that  I  gave  him  a  five-pound  note 
as  a  wedding  present,  and  this,  in  addition  to  many 
little  odds  and  ends  of  household  use,  was,  of  course, 
wealth  to  him.  He  had  always  been  of  a  saving 
disposition,  and  had  accumulated  quite  a  large  sum 
of  money ;  he  was  already  the  possessor  of  some 
land  in  his  village,  and  also  of  some  sheep  and  goats. 
Therefore,  his  wedding  was  that  of  a  rich  man,  and 
great  preparations  were  made  for  the  event.  In- 
vitations were  issued  prior  to  my  departure  for 
England,  and  on  my  return  he  described  the  affair 
to  me.  It  was,  as  nearly  as  I  can  remember  it,  as 
follows. 

On  the  day  of  his  arrival  at  his  village  from  Om- 
durman,  he  did  not  see  his  intended  wife  at  all. 
The  day  was  spent  in  receiving  visits  from  his  male 
friends,  and  in  inspecting  the  new  residence  which 
was  to  be  his  after  the  marriage  ceremony.    On  the 


272        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

following  morning  he  mounted  a  horse  at  sunrise, 
and  attended  by  as  many  of  his  male  friends  as  he 
could  muster,  he  headed  a  procession  to  the  river, 
where  the  customary  ablutions  of  the  Moslem  creed 
having  been  performed  by  all,  he  bathed  alone. 
During  the  afternoon  he  visited  his  future  bride, 
but  only  saw  her  in  the  presence  of  an  aged  female 
relative.  The  river  ceremony  was  repeated  each 
morning  up  to  and  on  the  day  of  the  marriage. 
The  moment  that  the  marriage  had  taken  place 
feasting  commenced,  and  was  carried  on  tiU  a  late 
hour  at  night,  when  the  newly  united  pair  were 
escorted  to  their  new  home.  An  hahima,  or  woman 
doctor,  attended  them,  and  was  the  only  other  person 
to  enter  the  house  ;  she  would  then  prepare  things  for 
the  night,  and  would  either  remain  in  the  bridal 
chamber  until  dawn,  or  leave  when  her  services  were 
at  an  end,  according  to  the  desire  of  the  husband — in 
most  cases  this  point  is  settled  in  accordance  with 
the  custom  of  the  village  where  the  ceremony  has 
taken  place. 

For  the  first  three  days  of  married  life  the  wife  is 
not  supposed  to  address  her  husband  in  conversation 
unless  she  is  first  spoken  to  by  him.  The  morning 
after  the  marriage  the  husband  leaves  the  house  to 
visit  his  male  friends,  the  bride  meanwhile  holds  a 
reception  of  maidens.  No  married  women  visit 
her  on  this  occasion.  The  husband  returns  at  about 
noon,  and  from  that  hour  until  four  o'clock  the  house 
is  sacred — no  one,  even  the  most  intimate  friends  of 
either  party,  would  think  of  paying  a  visit  between 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND    CUSTOMS       273 

these  hours.  Dancing  and  feasting  follows  in  the 
evening,  and  on  subsequent  nights  until  the  good 
things  provided  are  exhausted,  when  life  settles 
down  into  the  routine  which  will  be  followed  in  the 
future.  The  refreshments  at  these  feasts  consist  of 
sweetmeats  of  all  descriptions,  meat  and  rice  cooked 
in  a  liquid  butter  known  as  semn,  and  which  is  very 
rich,  fowls  and  pigeon,  with  the  flat,  unleavened 
bread  which  is  the  common  form  of  nutriment  in  the 
country.  The  women  seldom  drink  anything  stronger 
than  milk ;  for  the  men,  milk,  coffee,  and  a  native- 
brewed  beer  marissa  is  provided.  It  is  made  of 
fermented  durra,  and  is  very  thick.  I  tasted  it  once, 
and  thought  that  it  was  most  unpleasant,  but  the 
natives  are  very  fond  of  it. 

Fatalism  is,  of  course,  a  very  marked  feature  of  the 
Sudanese  character.  "  What  will  be  will  be ;  it  is 
the  will  of  Allah."  I  remember  a  curious  incident 
in  connection  with  this  fatalism  of  the  people ;  one 
which  made  me  doubt  very  strongly  at  the  time 
as  to  whether  the  professed  beliefs  of  the  people  were 
as  real  as  they  pretended.  I  was  coming  down  from 
Fashoda  on  one  of  the  smaller  gunboats,  with  a 
gyassa  containing  stores  and  a  number  of  heavily 
shackled  Dinka  prisoners  in  tow  alongside.  Towards 
sunset  a  breeze  rose,  and  later  in  the  evening  it 
developed  into  a  steady  gale.  We  had  been  late  in 
leaving  Fashoda,  and  I  was  therefore  anxious  to 
make  as  much  headway  as  we  could  ;  I  consequently 
decided  to  go  on  as  long  as  possible  in  spite  of  the 
weather.    But  at  about  ten  o'clock  the  wind  suddenly 


274        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

increased  in  volume,  and  the  gyassa,  rising  and 
falling  with  the  swell  on  the  waters,  became  a  real 
danger  to  the  safety  of  the  steamer.  I  gave  orders 
to  clear  it,  with  the  intention  of  cutting  her  adrift 
should  we  fail  to  find  a  safe  stopping-place  to  put  in 
at.  In  a  few  minutes  the  men  came  to  say  that  all 
was  ready,  and  as  there  was  no  place  suitable  for 
anchorage  in  sight,  I  descended  from  the  bridge,  and 
was  about  to  order  the  men  to  cut  the  ropes  when  I 
suddenly  noticed  something  moving  in  the  gyassa. 

I  asked  if  everything  had  been  removed. 

"  Everything." 

"  Where  have  you  put  the  prisoners  ?  " 

They  had  not  been  moved ;  all  the  stores  were  safe 
on  the  steamer,  but  neither  my  sailors  or  the  guard 
in  charge  of  the  wretched  Dinkas  had  thought  it 
necessary  to  move  them.  I  got  them  on  board  with 
the  greatest  difi&culty,  cut  the  boat  adrift,  and  then 
proceeded  to  let  my  crew  know  what  I  thought  of 
them.    They  were  greatly  surprised. 

"  The  men  were  only  Dinkas — slaves — besides,  if 
Allah  willed  that  they  should  be  drowned,  it  would 
happen.    What  would  you  ?  " 

I  felt  very  much  inclined  to  try  an  experiment  as 
to  how  far  this  fatalism  would  carry  one  of  my  own 
men  if  I  cast  him  into  the  river,  but  as  I  could  not 
do  that,  I  cut  their  pay  and  let  the  incident  slide. 

On  another  occasion,  as  I  was  going  home  on  leave, 
a  barge  attached  to  the  steamer  on  the  Haifa-Assouan 
reach  of  the  river  suddenly  broke  adrift  in  heavy 
weather.     She  was  carrying  a  full  complement  of 


SUPERSTITIONS    AND    CUSTOMS      275 

troops  who  were  proceeding  to  Egypt  off  service  in 
the  Sudan.  Not  a  man  raised  his  hand  to  try  and 
save  the  barge ;  without  exception  they  dropped  on 
their  knees,  and  started  praying  in  audible  and  tearful 
tones.  These  men  were  Egyptians  ;  their  faith  was 
good  to  see,  but  they  might  have  blended  it  with  a 
little  practical  common  sense  with  great  advantage 
to  themselves  and  everyone  else  concerned. 

It  is  a  common  belief  among  the  Sudanese  that  no 
good  will  come  of  a  present  if  it  is  used  on  the  day 
that  it  is  given  to  one.  I  remember  being  sent  a  ring 
from  England  while  I  was  in  the  Sudan.  My  boy 
was  greatly  taken  with  it  when  he  saw  me  open  the 
parcel,  but  he  was  horrified  when  I  put  it  on  my 
finger  and  left  it  there.  He  told  me  that  it  should  be 
put  away  in  the  paper  in  which  it  had  come  until  the 
following  morning,  otherwise  it  could  never  bring 
me  luck.  When  I  persisted  in  wearing  it  he  shrugged 
his  shoulders,  but  said  no  more.  However,  when 
next  I  had  a  present  sent  to  me,  he  calmly  took  it 
away  after  I  had  opened  it,  and  denied  all  knowledge 
of  its  whereabouts  until  the  following  morning,  when 
he  handed  it  back  with  the  remark  that  if  I  would  not 
look  after  myself,  he  must ! 

The  ''  howling  Dervishes,"  who  were  at  one  time 
one  of  the  chief  sights  of  Cairo,  were  to  be  heard 
nightly  in  their  native  element  in  Omdurman  when 
I  arrived  there.  Their  cry  is  the  weirdest  sound 
imaginable,  and  they  have  the  appearance  of  restless 
spirits  as  they  stand  in  lines,  and  sway  backwards 
and  forwards  with  the  name  of  Allah  on  their  lips. 


276        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

They  hate  doing  this  as  a  performance,  and  the 
really  religious  Sudanese  will  not  consent  to  it ;  they 
are  entirely  eaten  up  with  religious  fervour  while 
they  are  at  it,  and  they  resent  the  presence  of  a 
Christian  very  strongly. 

In  my  opinion  the  Moslem  religion  is  one  which  has 
a  great  many  good  points,  if,  of  course,  it  is  lived  up 
to  thoroughly.  I  have  come  into  contact  with  many 
men  in  the  Sudan  than  whom  it  would  be  impossible 
to  find  better.  These  are  not  the  class  who  will  flop 
down  at  one's  feet  to  pray  the  moment  that  work  is 
about ;  it  is  the  people  who  deny  themselves  every- 
thing in  order  to  live  up  to  the  Mohammedan  teaching 
which  exhorts  its  faithful  to  support  their  wives, 
and  the  families  of  their  wives,  in  addition  to  their  own 
family  in  cases  of  necessity.  I  can  recall  one  man 
particularly.  He  was  second  reis  on  one  of  my 
steamers,  and  a  better  man  I  never  knew.  He  was 
middle-aged,  and  was  the  only  son  of  his  mother, 
who  was  a  widow.  So  he  supported  her.  He  had  two 
wives,  and  of  course  he  had  to  support  them.  His 
three  sisters  were  either  unmarried  or  divorced,  so 
he  kept  them.  His  salary  was  not  a  large  one,  but 
notwithstanding  the  numerous  calls  upon  his  pay  he 
was  always  in  spotless  clothes,  and  during  the  fast  of 
Ramadan  he  was  the  only  man  of  my  crew  who  held 
steadfastly  to  the  prescribed  fast,  while  doing  his 
full  round  of  labour  at  the  same  time.  At  last  his 
strength  failed  him,  and  I  had  to  speak  to  him  about 
it,  though  I  never  cared  to  interfere  in  their  rehgious 
beliefs  if  it  was  in  any  way  possible  to  avoid  doing  so. 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND    CUSTOMS       277 

I  pointed  out  that  his  health  would  not  stand  the 
strain,  and  begged  him  to  eat.  He  would  not. 
'•Then/'  I  said,  "  you  must  take  a  day's  rest,  and 
we  will  do  as  best  we  can  without  you  ;  you  shall  not 
work  and  fast  together  any  longer."  That  con- 
quered him ;  he  said  that  he  knew  he  could  not 
be  spared  from  his  work,  and  that  therefore,  if  I 
insisted,  he  would  cease  fasting  for  the  rest  of  the 
prescribed  term,  and  would  make  it  up  later  when  the 
work  was  not  so  heavy. 

It  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  Sudanese  brought 
Allah  into  far  more  intimate  relationship  with  them- 
selves than  do  the  majority  of  Christians  in  our  own 
country.  One  constantly  hears  men  talking  together 
of  what  Allah  would  think  if  such  and  such  a  thing 
were  done,  or  left  undone ;  they  have  a  child-like 
faith  which  is  very  attractive.  In  questions  of 
morality  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  teaching 
of  their  religion  is  very  different  to  ours,  and  it  would 
be  as  well  if  our  moralists,  as  well  as  our  reformers, 
would  remember,  that  in  the  words  of  Kipling — 

"...  the  world  is  wondrous  large, — seven  seas  from 

marge  to  marge, 
And  it  holds  a  vast  of  various  kinds  of  man  ; 
And  the  wildest  dreams  of  Kew  are  facts  of  Khat- 

mandhu, 
And  the  crimes  of  Clapham  chaste  in  Martaban." 

I  do  not  for  an  instant  pretend  that  the  Moham- 
medan religion  stands,  in  its  teaching,  upon  the  same 
plane  of  nobleness  or  purity  as  the  Christian,  but  I 


278        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

do  say  tliat  we  should  be  tolerant  of  a  belief  which, 
though  it  may  be  erroneous,  tends  to  bind  its 
devotees  in  an  unswerving  bond  of  brotherhood. 

I  recollect  hearing  one  Sudanese  servant  explaining 
to  another  the  reason  why  the  land  is  cursed  with 
mosquitoes  and  flies. 

"  In  the  beginning,"  he  said,  "  the  people  of  the 
northern  Sudan  were  as  those  of  the  south,  they  knew 
nothing,  and  they  would  not  work  or  learn.  They 
slept  all  night,  and  then  they  slept  nearly  aU  day 
as  well.  To  punish  them  Allah  sent  the  mosquito, 
which  troubled  their  rest  at  nights.  This  made  them 
restless,  but  instead  of  making  them  work  they  would 
sleep  all  day  to  make  up  for  the  night.  Then  Allah 
became  angry.  '  What  a  people ! '  he  said,  and  he 
sent  the  seroot  fly  to  sting  them  in  the  daytime  as 
well.  That  kept  them  moving,  and  at  length  they 
began  to  work." 

"  But  why  did  he  not  take  the  scourge  away  when 
we  became  such  a  people  ?  "  asked  the  other. 

The  first  speaker  thought  for  a  moment,  then — 
"  Fool,"  he  said,  "  would  you  question  the  ways  of 
Allah  ?  " 

I  have  mentioned  the  tom-toms  with  which  the 
Sudanese  beguile  the  early  hours  of  darkness.  They 
are  made  of  skins  bound  over  a  hollow  body,  and  are 
used  as  drums  ;  some  of  the  tunes  played  are  charm- 
ing, and  have  far  more  rhythm  in  them  than  those  of 
the  Egyptian  chants.  The  Sudanese  are  also  very 
fond  of  singing,  and  will  get  through  work  very  much 
faster  if  they  have  a  man  to  lead  them  with  his  voice, 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS       279 

than  they  do  if  they  are  without  music  of  any  de- 
scription. Some  of  these  men  are  exceedingly  clever, 
and  make  up  verses  of  the  song  as  they  go,  after  the 
manner  of  the  penillion  singers  of  Wales.  The  fol- 
lowing is  a  crude  translation  of  a  verse  sung  one 
night  when  I  was  in  my  bath  ;  the  men  were  loading 
wood  at  one  of  the  stations  of  the  south,  it  may  give 
some  idea  of  the  song.  All  the  men  joined  in  the 
singing  of  "  Yalla  ya  Said,"  which  followed  each  line. 
Unfortunately,  however,  this  translation  can  carry 
with  it  no  idea  of  its  haunting  strangeness  and  beauty 
in  the  original. 

"  The  gentleman  goes  to  his  bath, 

Yalla  ya  Said. 
The  bath  is  filled  with  water  cold, 

Yalla  ya  Said. 
The  gentleman's  skin  is  very  white, 

Yalla  ya  Said. 
Because  of  the  cold  in  his  own  country, 

Yalla  ya  Said. 
He  loves  the  splash  of  the  white  river, 

Yalla  ya  Said." 

The  Sudanese  are  a  naturally  emotional  people, 
and  love  display,  whether  it  be  of  joy  or  of  sorrow. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  scene  which  followed  the 
drowning  of  a  man  under  the  floating  dock  at  Om- 
durman,  when  it  was  still  under  construction.  The 
unfortunate  man  was  at  work  on  a  scaffolding  when 
he  fell,  and  in  floundering  about  in  the  water  he  got 
right  under  the  dock  and,  I  suppose,  lost  his  head,  for 


280        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

though  he  was  a  good  swimmer  he  did  not  reappear. 
The  news  spread  like  wildfire,  and  in  a  few  moments 
the  beach  was  crowded  with  natives.  The  men  were 
silent  in  comparison  to  the  women,  who  behaved  like 
raving  lunatics.  For  the  first  few  moments  their 
protestations  of  grief  struck  me  as  being  false,  but  I 
am  convinced  that  there  was  much  genuine  feeling — 
induced,  no  doubt,  by  their  former  acting — in  the 
fever  to  which  they  ultimately  worked  themselves. 
I  remember  one  woman  particularly  ;  she  almost 
killed  herself  in  the  abandonment  of  her  emotions. 
Time  and  again  she  flung  herself  prostrate  on  the 
ground,  her  forehead  coming  with  a  terrific  impact 
against  the  soil.  Then,  not  content,  as  were  the 
majority  of  the  others,  with  the  mere  throwing  of 
dust  on  their  heads,  she  worked  her  face  deeply  into 
the  sand,  until  her  countenance  was  scarred  and 
bleeding.  Her  bloodstained  and  grimy  face  haunted 
me  for  days  after  the  occurrence.  She  was  not  a 
professional  mourner ;  but  she  had  certainly  missed 
her  vocation. 

The  cries  of  the  people,  when  at  last  the  body  of 
the  dead  man  was  discovered  by  divers  and  brought 
ashore,  were  heartrending,  but  again  the  actions  of 
some  of  the  mourners  were  so  extravagant  that  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  one  could  realise  that  the 
scene  was  one  in  real  life.  The  actors,  strained  and 
unconvincing  in  the  first  place,  had  worked  them- 
selves into  their  parts  after  a  few  moments  ;  now 
they  overplayed  them. 

I  went  to  sleep  that  night  to  the  accompaniment 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS       281 

of  the  mournful  singing  of  those  who  had  assembled 
at  the  dead  man's  residence  to  give  him  the  final 
honour  of  a  wake.  In  the  early  hours  of  the  morning 
I  waked  to  hear  the  same  sound  beating  the  still 
air  with  doleful  and  monotonous  persistence.  The 
sound  was  much  more  impressive  now  than  it  had 
been  while  still  the  ordinary  sounds  of  Ufe  mingled 
with  it ;  one  felt  that  the  people  had  at  last  struck 
the  chord  for  which  they  had  been  striving,  and  that 
their  protestations  of  grief  were  not  for  the  ear  of 
man,  but  were  uttered  in  a  direct  appeal  to  an  all- 
comprehending  Deity. 

The  next  day  the  man  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  ceme- 
tery, where  rested  the  bones  of  many  hundreds  of  his 
compatriots  ;  and  after  carefully  placing  a  goolali 
of  water  and  some  grain  at  the  head  of  the  grave, 
that  the  dead  man  might  know  neither  hunger  or 
thirst  should  his  spirit  rise  in  the  night,  the  mourners 
trudged  back  to  the  city,  with  their  minds  already 
filled  with  other  thoughts.  The  will  of  Allah  must 
be  obeyed,  and  human  life  is  cheaper  in  the  Sudan 
than  it  is  in  Europe  ;  there  is  the  first  acute  and 
almost  overpowering  sense  of  loss,  a  night  of  mourn- 
ing, an  anguished  five  minutes  at  the  grave  of  the 
departed — then  a  sun-purged  mind  and  forgetfulness. 

In  the  southern  Sudan  it  may  be  that  the  constant 
fact  of  losing  their  friends  and  relatives  through  the 
raids  of  slave  traders  has  something  to  do  with  the 
fact  that  separation  is  not  felt  so  acutely  as  in  other 
countries,  or  at  least  that  the  sense  of  loss  does  not 
survive   many  days.     In  all  Eastern  countries,  of 


282        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

course,  human  life  is  not  held  as  sacred  as  it  is  in  the 
West,  but  the  people  of  this  country  do  not  appear 
to  look  upon  death  with  the  disregard  of  the  Oriental 
proper ;  it  is  simply  that  their  minds  appear  to  be 
unable  to  retain  the  memory  which  they  have  cher- 
ished, for  many  days  after  that  face  is  out  of  sight. 
There  is  undoubtedly  very  real  affection  between 
mother  and  child,  brother  and  sister,  or  husband  and 
wife  at  times,  but  I  think  that  were  one  of  the  most 
loved  sons  in  the  Sudan  to  be  killed,  his  mother 
would  forget  him,  or  at  least  she  would  not  regret 
him  with  any  great  depth  of  feeling,  after  the  first 
month  of  his  absence. 

This  is  a  consideration  which  should  not  be  over- 
looked by  those  who  condemn  the  Government  for 
the  fact  that  there  still  remain  slaves  in  the  Sudan, 
slaves  who  are  the  property  of  masters  who  are 
law-abiding  citizens,  and  staunch  supporters  of  the 
Government. 

The  entire  elimination  of  the  slave  trade  in  its 
every  form  is,  of  course,  one  of  the  chief  desires  of  the 
Government,  and  the  slaves  who  are  now  in  the  Sudan 
are  those  who  were  in  the  country  in  that  capacity 
at  the  time  when  the  Enghsh  and  Egyptian  Govern- 
ments appeared  on  the  scene  and  routed  the  forces 
of  Mahdism.  The  prohibition  of  slave  traffic  was  one 
of  the  most  unwelcome  acts  perpetrated  by  the 
Government ;  the  strong  had  been  accustomed  to 
prey  upon  the  weak  for  centuries,  and  this  abrupt 
stoppage  of  one  of  the  principal  sources  of  income 
did  not  suit  the  traders  at  all.     The  Government 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND    CUSTOMS       283 

decided  that  it  would  be  absurd  to  liberate  all  the 
slaves  of  the  Sudan  at  one  fell  swoop,  and  creditable 
masters  were  therefore  allowed  to  hold  such  slaves 
as  they  had  in  their  possession.  The  slaves,  however, 
were  given  the  right  to  complain  to  the  Government 
in  case  of  cruel  treatment,  or  any  other  cause  of 
distress  ;  indeed,  it  was  almost  enough  for  a  slave  to 
wish  for,  and  apply  for  his  liberation,  and  it  would  be 
accorded  him  at  once.  Comparatively  few  applied 
for  their  manumission  papers,  and  out  of  those  who 
did,  a  large  number  have  been  absolute  failures  in 
after  Ufe. 

A  number  of  women  obtained  their  freedom  at 
demand  in  the  Blue  Nile  province.  Before  a  month 
had  elapsed  they  had  one  and  all  adopted  Hves  of 
open  shame,  and  even  when  opportunities  for  marriage 
presented  themselves  they  refused  them. 

I  am  convinced  that  many  of  the  Egyptian  ojB&cers, 
non-commissioned  officers,  and  men  who  were  serving 
with  the  Army  in  the  Sudan,  played  important  parts 
in  the  slave  trade  while  I  was  in  the  country. 

The  Egyptian  resented  the  quashing  of  this  traffic 
to  a  greater  extent  than  did  the  Sudanese,  and  he  is 
never  averse  to  assisting  in  a  deal  at  the  present 
moment,  should  an  opportunity  occur.  I  came  across 
one  instance  where  an  Egyptian  officer  was  dealing 
in  human  goods,  and  there  are  undoubtedly  numerous 
others  which  we  never  bear  about.  In  one  way  it  is 
hard  to  blame  them.  The  custom  is  one  which  lias 
received  the  recognition  of  generation  after  generation 
of  Egyptians,  and  it  is  very  hard  to  uproot  in  a  day 


284        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

a  custom  which  is  so  firmly  implanted  as  this.  A 
small  Egyptian  servant,  who  was  with  me  in  later 
days,  told  me  that  the  one  mistake  of  the  English  in 
Egypt  was  that  they  had  put  a  stop  to  the  slave 
traffic.  His  father  had  apparently  been  a  big  owner 
in  the  old  days,  and  he  keenly  resented  the  change, 
whereby  he  was  forced  to  pay  for  what  labour  he 
employed. 

"  Before  the  English  came,"  said  this  boy,  "  we 
were  rich  and  happy,  for  we  had  slaves  to  do  all  the 
work  of  the  farm  and  of  the  house.  If  they  did  not 
work  well,  we  would  give  them  the  coiirbash;  now 
that  is  all  over,  and  we  have  to  work  ourselves." 

I  asked  him  by  what  right  his  father  had  bought 
the  men  in  the  first  place,  as  they  had  been  free  as 
himself  at  one  time. 

"  He  was  the  strongest  man,"  the  boy  replied. 

I  pointed  out  that  the  English  were  considerably 
stronger  than  the  Egyptians,  what,  therefore,  was 
there  to  prevent  them  making  slaves  of  his  race  ?  He 
saw  the  point,  and  admitted  that  there  was  something 
in  the  argument,  but  he  got  his  shot  in  with  the  re- 
mark, "  Yes,  in  the  old  days,  if  an  Egyptian  servant 
offended  his  master  he  would  be  thrashed ;  now,  if 
my  master  were  to  thrash  me  I  should  take  him  to  the 
Courts,  and  he  would  be  punished." 

Which,  by  the  way,  is  perfectly  true. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  Slave  Repression  De- 
partment has  done  some  excellent  work  in  the  Sudan, 
and  each  year  lessens  the  number  of  slaves  who  are 
sent  over  the  borders  of  the  country  to  serve  in  other 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND    CUSTOMS       285 

lands.  And,  naturally,  each  year  also  shows  a  steady 
decrease  in  the  number  of  slaves  actually  Living  in  the 
Sudan.  In  time,  the  whole  system  of  slavery  will 
have  fallen  into  disuse,  and  each  child  born  in  the 
Sudan  will  be  as  free  a  subject  as  a  Pasha.  The 
people  of  the  south  are  beginning  to  realise  this, 
and  they  show  a  marked  appreciation  of  the  fact, 
since  it  was  from  their  ranks  that  the  majority  of 
slaves  were  drawn  in  the  old  days.  But  it  would 
have  been  manifestly  unfair  to  deprive  the  slave- 
owners of  the  Sudan  of  their  property  at  one  swoop  ; 
had  this  course  been  adopted  it  would  have  caused  an 
enormous  amount  of  dissatisfaction  among  the  people ; 
even,  in  some  cases,  among  the  liberated  slaves  them- 
selves, for  they  would  have  had  nothing  to  do,  no 
means  of  obtaining  a  livelihood,  and  they  would  have 
felt  it  keenly.  As  a  general  rule  they  were  treated 
with  kindness  and  consideration  by  their  employers, 
and  there  were,  apparently,  very  few  cases  of  actual 
cruelty,  though  the  sale  of  children,  at  an  age  when 
they  were  just  becoming  of  real  assistance  to  their 
parents,  could  never  be  anything  else  than  cruel. 

Occasionally,  even  in  the  time  that  I  was  in  the 
Sudan,  one  would  get  a  veiled  offer  of  a  slave,  usually 
of  the  female  sex.  I  think  that,  despite  the  efforts 
of  the  Government  to  put  down  the  trade,  it  would 
have  been  quite  possible,  up  to  and  probably  beyond 
the  time  of  my  departure  from  the  country,  to 
purchase  a  slave  of  either  sex  in  the  markets  of 
Omdurman. 

As  it  was,  the  girls — they  were  often  mere  children 


286        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

— who  were  brought  into  the  houses  of  ill-fame  in 
that  town  were  really  slaves  to  the  woman  or  the  man 
who  ran  the  house.  At  a  later  date  they  would  be 
permitted  to  marry,  if  they  could  find  a  husband ; 
but  I  fancy  that  great  difficulties  would  have  been 
put  in  their  way  had  they  attempted  to  do  this,  or 
to  leave  the  house  on  any  other  pretext,  while  they 
were  still  in  the  first  bloom  of  their  youth.  The 
possession  of  a  really  attractive  maiden  might  mean 
a  fortune  to  the  person  to  whom  she  belonged,  and 
the  Sudanese,  like  other  races,  were  not  slow  to 
realise  this. 

The  collection  of  money  for  the  building  of  the 
famous  Gordon  College  was  the  crowning  act  which 
makes  the  name  of  Lord  Kitchener  revered  in  the 
Sudan.  To  this  college,  and  the  excellence  of  its 
training,  we,  in  common  with  the  Sudanese,  already 
owe  much.  The  Director  of  Education,  Mr.  James 
Currie,  was  a  man  eminently  fitted  for  the  difficult 
task  placed  in  his  hands  at  the  time  when  the  Sudanese 
took  their  first  draught  of  learning,  and  he  has 
acquitted  himself  admirably  in  all  respects.  It  is  an 
extraordinary  fact  that  though  the  Egyptian  has 
been  in  close  touch  with  civiHsation  for  centuries, 
the  average  Egyptian  of  to-day  cannot  compare  with 
the  dark-skinned  Sudanese  in  any  one  way  where 
intellect  is  concerned.  It  is  true  that  the  educational 
movement  has  only  of  recent  years  reached  anything 
like  a  standard  of  comprehensive  usefulness  ;  but 
now  that  it  has  come,  the  innate  and  ludicrous  conceit 
of  the  Egyptian  effendi  leads  him  to  imagine  that  the 


SUPERSTITIONS   AND   CUSTOMS       287 

mere  act  of  attending  college  at  all,  renders  him 
equal,  if  it  does  not  render  him  superior,  to  the  other 
people  of  the  world.  Of  course,  the  state  of  affairs 
in  Egypt  at  the  present  day  is  exceptionally  bad  by 
reason  of  the  weakness  of  the  British  Government, 
which  has  pandered  to  the  wishes  of  irresponsible 
and  frequently  half-educated  Nationalists  ;  but  that, 
after  all,  is  not  wholly  responsible  for  the  pig- 
headedness  of  the  average  student. 

When  the  Gordon  College  was  opened,  and  the 
Sudanese  students  began  to  feel  the  sense  of  superi- 
ority which  is  inseparable  from  the  first  stage  of 
learning,  it  looked  for  a  short  time  as  though  they, 
too,  were  going  to  overstep  the  mark.  Youths 
crossing  from  Khartoum  to  Khartoum  North  by  the 
ferry  forgot  their  manners  occasionally,  and  jostled 
EngHshmen  and  women  in  their  attempt  to  be  first 
on  board.  Little  acts  such  as  this  were  common  for  a 
time  ;  but  for  a  very  short  time  only.  The  first  stage 
past,  the  lads  behaved  themselves  with  dignity,  and 
with  them,  learning  developed  the  better  side  of  their 
character,  and  has  not  drawn  out  evidences  of  an 
inflated  and  empty-headed  conceit. 

Boys  are  trained  at  the  Gordon  College  to  trades, 
and  to  various  branches  of  learning  which  will  prove 
of  inestimable  value  to  them  in  the  future.  Young 
men,  on  completion  of  a  certain  period  in  the  college 
itself,  are  drafted  into  the  workshops  of  the  Steamers 
and  Boats  Department  at  Khartoum  North,  where 
they  receive  practical  training  as  mechanics  and 
engineers,  and  this  is  a  trade  which  they  are  eminently 


288        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

suited  for.  They  love  machinery  and  all  that  pertains 
to  it.  A  special  providence  must  have  overlooked  the 
working  of  the  steamers  in  the  time  of  the  Khalifa, 
for  there  appears  to  have  been  no  one  who  thoroughly 
understood  the  machinery,  and  they  are,  even  yet, 
rather  casual  in  the  treatment  of  their  boilers  ;  if 
there  is  plenty  of  water  in  them,  well  and  good,  if  not, 
ma'leesh,  they  probably  will  not  burst !  I  remember 
once  finding  a  boiler  emptied  in  readiness  for  cleaning 
the  following  morning.  There  was  no  one  near,  the 
native  engineer  had  opened  the  cocks  to  blow  down, 
and  departed  thankfully  ;  everything  was  in  order  to 
his  mind.  The  only  thing  he  had  forgotten  to  do 
was  to  rake  out  the  fire  ! 

I  told  the  engineer  in  charge  of  the  workshops  of 
the  occurrence.  He  took  it  very  philosophically. 
"  Oh,  well,  it  is  the  Sudan,"  he  said ;  "if  it  had  been 
done  at  home,  the  crown  of  the  boiler  would  have 
come  in ;    here,  nothing  will  happen." 

It  is  extraordinary,  but  nothing  ever  does  happen 
disastrously,  or,  if  it  does,  no  one  suffers. 

The  floating  dock,  to  which  I  have  alluded  more  than 
once,  was  sunk  on  her  first  trial.  The  pumps  were 
started  to  sink  it  sufficiently  to  take  a  steamer,  when 
it  suddenly  heaved  forward,  and  in  a  moment  it  had 
disappeared  beneath  the  waters  of  the  White  Nile 
opposite  Omdurman.  The  event  caused  a  great 
sensation  among  the  natives  ;  it  was  a  bad  failure. 
However,  thanks  to  the  untiring  efforts  of  the  En- 
gineers stationed  in  Omdurman  at  the  time,  it  was 
raised  again  in  a  few  days,  and  was  in  full  working 


SUPEKSTITIONS    AND    CUSTOMS       289 

order  to  be  shown  to  Lord  Kitchener,  who  had  ordered 
its  construction  in  the  first  place,  when  he  arrived 
on  a  visit  to  the  Sudan  some  time  afterwards. 

In  writing  of  the  visit  of  Lord  Kitchener  I  am 
reminded  of  an  incident  which  occurred  the  day 
before  he  arrived  in  Khartoum.  .  There  had  been 
several  thefts  from  the  steamers  in  the  dockyard, 
and  I  remember  going  the  round  of  the  boat  on  which 
I  was  sleeping  before  turning  in,  to  see  that  a  watch- 
man was  awake,  as  we  happened  to  have  a  lot  of 
valuable  stores  on  board.  Everything  was  in  order, 
so  I  went  to  bed.  The  next  morning  my  boy  informed 
me  that  he  had  caught  the  thief  in  the  night,  but  had 
let  him  go  as  he  was  a  poor  man,  and  the  fright  which 
he  had  received  would  be  sufficient  to  prevent  his 
making  any  further  attempts  to  rob  the  steamers. 
It  appeared  that  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  my 
boy  was  lying  half  awake,  when  he  saw  a  man  stealing 
quietly  down  the  bank  opposite  the  ship,  and  come 
on  board.  He  was  stark  naked,  but  he  carried  the 
small  knife  which  the  Sudanese  use,  in  its  sheath  on 
his  left  arm.  Mohammed,  feigning  sleep,  watched 
him  quietly.  He  came  right  to  where  the  boy  lay, 
and  searched  about.  His  body  was  heavily  greased ; 
thus,  had  anyone  attempted  to  capture  him,  he 
would  have  literally  slipped  through  their  fingers. 
My  boy  was  too  wise  to  attempt  to  do  this  ;  he  waited 
calmly  until  the  man,  finding  nothing  of  sufficient 
value  on  deck  to  steal,  descended  into  one  of  the 
holds.  Then  he  rose  calmly,  closed  the  hold,  and  sat 
on  the  cover  and  called  for  help. 


290        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

This  statement  was  confirmed  by  other  members 
of  the  crew.  I  was  naturally  furious  that  the  thief 
should  have  been  allowed  to  escape,  but  it  was 
certainly  true  that  there  were  no  more  attempts  to 
steal  from  the  ships  for  a  long  time  after  the  incident. 

Taking  the  country  all  through  there  are  very  few 
cases  of  actual  burglary,  though  almost  every  Sudanie 
will  steal  in  small  quantities  when  opportunity  offers, 
but  only,  it  must  be  said  in  their  defence,  if  they 
think  that  the  man  they  rob  is  able  to  afford  the  loss. 
They  seldom  steal  from  each  other,  but  rob  the 
richer  classes  with  the  greatest  nonchalance.  They 
seem  to  think  that  if  they  are  able  to  do  this  it  is  no 
more  than  their  due,  and  that  they  are  harming 
nobody. 

Their  standard  of  morality  in  this  respect  is  dis- 
tinctly higher  than  the  Egyptians',  who  would  rob 
their  grandmothers  if  they  got  the  chance. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

YESTERDAY    AND    TO-DAY 

IN    the    Government    Report    on    the    Egyptian 
Provinces  of  the  Sudan  for  the  year  1884,  the 
following  description  of  Khartoum  appears : — 

"...  The  town,  as  approached  from  the  white 
river,  presents  a  mass  of  dirty-grey  houses,  over- 
topped by  a  single  minaret,  and  in  front  lies  a  sterile 
sandy  plain,  without  trees  or  bushes.  It  is  entered  by 
a  long,  narrow  street,  stretching  from  west  to  east, 
and  terminating  in  the  market.  This  street  is  dirty 
in  the  extreme,  and  bordered  by  mud  houses,  whose 
doors  are  their  only  openings  to  the  street.  In  other 
parts  of  the  town  there  is  no  semblance  of  regularity  ; 
the  houses  are  of  all  sizes  and  shapes,  and  the  streets 
are  labyrinths.  Here  and  there  are  open  spaces  large 
enough  for  gardens,  and  even  for  cornfields. 

"  There  are  numerous  hollow  flats,  in  which,  during 
the  rainy  season,  water  collects  and  stagnates,  ren- 
dering the  place  very  unhealthy.  The  street  above- 
mentioned  is  the  best  in  Khartoum  ;  it  contains  the 
Governor's  residence  and  offices,  and  many  spacious 
mansions  belonging  to  Turks,  Copts,  and  Arabs. 
All  the  other  houses  are  of  a  miserable  description, 
consisting  of  sun-dried  clay,  cemented  with  cow-dung 

291 


292        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE   SUDAN 

and  slime.  In  the  market-place  is  the  mosque,  built 
of  brick,  and  here  also  are  the  bazaars,  coffee-houses, 
brandy-shops,  etc.  In  addition  to  the  buildings 
already  mentioned,  there  is  a  Coptic  and  a  Roman 
Catholic  Chapel,  a  Roman  Catholic  school,  an  in- 
firmary, a  gaol,  and  barracks. 

"  The  gardens  along  the  Blue  Nile  produce  vege- 
tables and  fruits  in  great  variety.  The  date-palm 
here  reaches  its  most  southern  limit,  and  ceases  to 
fully  ripen  its  fruit,  though  as  a  tree  it  still  grows 
vigorously. 

"  There  is  much  land  for  cultivation  along  the 
borders  of  the  Blue  Nile,  but  the  tax  on  the  water- 
wheels,  and  the  contribution  levied  on  the  produce, 
cause  the  Arabs  to  limit  their  agriculture  to  their 
bare  necessities. 

"  The  population  is  of  a  very  mixed  character." 

That  report  was  written  in  the  yesterday  of  the 
Sudan,  the  dark  yesterday,  when  the  country  ap- 
peared to  be  without  hope  or  value.  The  following 
quotation  is  from  an  interesting  article  by  Mr.  John 
Prioleau,  late  editor  of  the  "  Egyptian  Morning  News,"' 
and  a  well-known  authority  upon  Egyptian  questions, 
which  appeared  in  the  "  Outlook"  in  July,  1909,  over 
the  initials  "  J.  P."  and  under  the  title  of : — 

"THE    NEW    SUDAN    AND    ITS    CAPITAL. 

"  For  the  traveller,  weary  of  the  round  of  old- 
world  countries  and  their  capitals,  there  can  scarcely 
be  found  a  spot  more  interesting  for  a  short  visit  than 
the  capital  of  the  rescued  Sudan.    It  is  here  that  you 


YESTERDAY   AND    TO-DAY  293 

will  find  that  irresistible  instinct  of  colonisation, 
inbred  in  every  Englishman,  given  full  rein  and 
developing  the  vast  resources  of  the  country  as 
surely  and  successfully  as  it  has  done  elsewhere  in 
Greater  Britain.  And  for  an  outward  sign  of  this 
you  will  see,  as  the  result  of  ten  years'  unremitting 
toil,  an  administration  which,  for  efiiciency,  clear- 
sightedness, and  broad-minded  principles,  will  be 
long  remembered.  But  it  would  be  impossible  in  a 
brief  survey  to  describe  in  detail  the  work  accom- 
plished by  Sir  Reginald  Wingate  and  his  Government. 
Nor,  indeed,  would  such  an  attempt  escape  the 
charge  of  presumption,  seeing  that  it  is  but  a  year 
since  Lord  Cromer  published  his  book,  in  which  every 
particular  is  set  down  with  minute  accuracy.  One  or 
two  fresh  features,  however,  have  appeared  since 
*  Modern  Egypt '  was  printed,  and  it  is  of  these, 
and  the  wonderful  impression  made  on  the  new-comer 
to  Khartoum,  that  I  now  propose  to  treat. 

"  First  in  importance  comes  Port  Sudan,  the 
newly  created  harbour  on  the  Red  Sea,  which  was 
opened  in  state  by  the  Khedive  on  April  1.  This  is  a 
large  natural  harbour,  the  arm  of  water  which  runs 
inland  in  a  north-westerly  direction  providing,  at  a 
low  computation,  six  miles  of  deep-water  docks. 
The  tides  are  so  slight  that  they  do  not  exceed  a  rise 
and  fall  of  twelve  inches  at  any  time  of  the  year ; 
there  is  no  current,  and  vessels  can  steam  in  and  out 
at  comparatively  high  speeds  without  risk.  The 
depth,  in  some  places  as  much  as  fifty  fathoms, 
enables  the  largest  steamers  to  proceed,  without  the 


294        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

assistance  of  tugs,  right  up  to  the  limits  of  the  estuary 
to  the  great  dockyards,  where  every  facility  for  the 
most  extensive  repairs  is  found.  These  great  natural 
advantages,  together  with  the  new  plant  of  machinery 
of  the  latest  pattern,  in  the  shape  of  cranes,  hoists, 
and  derricks,  all  worked  by  and  controlled  from  a 
central  electric-power  station,  capable  of  handling  in 
the  most  rapid  and  economical  manner  the  largest 
quantity  of  goods,  at  once  place  Port  Sudan  at  the 
head  of  the  Red  Sea  ports,  and  ensure  for  it  as  much 
trade  as  its,  at  present,  necessarily  limited  staff 
can  undertake.  Although  it  has  only  just  been 
officially  declared  open  for  traffic,  a  considerable 
amount  of  business  has  been  done  during  the  past 
year.  Cotton  and  cereals,  including  dhurra,  the  staple 
food  of  Egypt,  have  been  sent  out  steadily,  and  since 
the  first  shipment  was  made  the  trade  has  doubled. 
And  in  this  connection  it  may  be  mentioned  that  in 
the  Sudan  dhurra  is  sown  and  reaped  in  sixty  days, 
giving  generally  three  crops,  and  when  water  is 
available,  five.  It  will,  therefore,  be  seen  how 
excellent  are  the  prospects  of  the  new  town. 

"  A  certain  amount  of  cheap  criticism  has  been 
levelled  at  this  undertaking,  chiefly  by  disappointed 
speculators  and  by  persons  who  have  an  imperfect 
knowledge  of  their  subject.  A  small  section  of  the 
former  have  apparently  a  grudge  against  the  Sudan, 
probably  because  the  Government  are  doing  all  in 
their  power  to  prevent  a  boom  like  that  which  threw 
Egypt  into  hopeless  financial  confusion  two  years  ago, 
and  they  have  not  hesitated  to  seek  the  publicity  of 


YESTERDAY   AND    TO-DAY  295 

the  Press  for  tlieir  opinions.  These  latter,  however, 
may  be  disregarded.  But  it  has  been  urged  by  less 
prejudiced  persons  that  the  £914,000  odd  spent  by 
the  Egyptian  Government  in  developing  this  place 
have  been  thrown  away.  Wharves  and  docks  have 
been  constructed,  and  expensive  machinery  has  been 
set  up  to  accommodate  a  rush  of  traffic  which,  it  is 
contended,  will  never  come  into  being.  A  moment's 
consideration  of  the  facts  will  be  sufficient  to  dispel 
such  an  illusion  from  the  mind  of  anyone  acquainted 
with  the  first  principles  of  developing  a  new  country's 
resources.  The  Sudan  is  a  country  three-quarters  the 
size  of  India,  whose  export  trade,  especially  that  of 
the  rich  lands  in  the  south  and  south-west,  although 
still  in  its  infancy,  has,  in  a  few  years,  attained  pro- 
portions greatly  in  excess  of  the  most  sanguine  ex- 
pectations. The  only  ports  through  which  this  ever- 
increasing  stream  of  trade  could  be  brought  to 
market  were  those  of  Egypt :  Alexandria,  already 
overcrowded  ;  Suez,  a  place  affording  few  facilities  ; 
and  Port  Said.  Each  of  these  is  at  an  immense  dis- 
tance from  the  place  of  production,  the  vast  province 
of  Kordofan,  the  source  of  the  gum,  which  is  one  of 
the  staple  products  of  the  Sudan,  being  over  two 
thousand  miles  from  the  Mediterranean.  Transport, 
by  river-steamer  and  rail,  is  consequently  very  costly. 
In  Port  Sudan,  which  is  a  comparatively  short  dis- 
tance from  the  capital,  the  country  has  a  much- 
needed  outlet  for  the  huge  exports  to  come,  and  an 
organisation  fit  to  cope  with  the  heaviest  trade. 


L>9C        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE   SUDAN 

"  Next  in  interest,  if  not  actually  next  in  import- 
ance, are  the  new  Khartoum  Waterworks.  During 
the  writer's  visit  these  were  undergoing  inspection  by 
a  leading  military  expert,  and,  in  the  course  of  con- 
versation afterwards,  he  admitted  that  in  all  his 
varied  experience  of  such  works  in  China,  India,  and 
other  parts  of  the  Empire,  he  had  never  come  across 
so  perfect,  simple,  and  reliable  a  method  of  supplying 
a  large  city  with  the  purest  water.  The  full  results  of 
the  various  tests  made  at  the  time  are  not  yet  avail- 
able, but,  judging  from  those  obtained  up  to  the 
time  of  writing,  the  Khartoum  supply,  at  any  rate 
as  regards  purity,  will  be  found  to  be  among  the  first 
in  the  world. 

"  These  two  are  the  chief  innovations  since  Lord 
Cromer  wrote  '  Modern  Egypt.'  There  are,  besides, 
several  smaller  institutions  which  have  done  exceed- 
ingly well,  and  among  these  must  be  counted  the  tram- 
way which  connects  the  ferries  between  Khartoum, 
Omdurman,  and  Khartoum  North.  So  successful  is 
this  that  the  profits,  amounting  sometimes  to  over 
five  hundred  pounds  a  month,  cover  about  one-third 
of  the  municipal  expenses.  As  regards  the  other 
pubhc  works  in  progress  the  most  important  is  the 
extension  of  the  railway  from  Khartoum  North  to 
Senaar,  in  the  proviuce  lying  between  the  Blue  and 
White  Niles,  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Khartoum. 
The  bridge  to  carry  the  fine  across  the  Blue  Nile  to 
Khartoum  proper  is  already  in  an  advanced  stage  of 
construction.  From  Senaar  it  is  proposed  to  lead 
across  the  heart  of  Kordofan,  by  way  of  Gedid,  a 


YESTERDAY   AND   TO-DAY  297 

further  hundred  miles.  (It  was  at  Gedid  that  the 
Sirdar  finally  caught  the  Khalifa  and  his  Emirs.) 
When  his  scheme  has  been  completed — and,  at  the 
rate  at  which  work  is  usually  done  in  the  Sudan, 
this  should  not  take  long — the  transport  problem 
for  the  country  south  and  south-west  of  the  capital 
will  be  solved,  and  the  Sudan  will  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  giving  substantial  proof  of  its  importance 
to  the  Empire  as  well  as  to  Egypt." 

This  was  written  only  a  little  over  a  year  ago,  and 
yet  it  is  already  ancient  history.  For  the  work  in 
the  Sudan  never  stands  still.  The  projected  railway 
to  Senaar,  of  which  Mr.  Prioleau  speaks,  is  now  some 
miles  south  of  Wad  Medani,  and  the  line  between 
Khartoum  and  the  above  town  has  been  open  to 
traffic  since  the  1st  of  January  last ! 

The  construction  of  this  railway  would,  of  course, 
never  have  been  undertaken  had  it  not  been  thought 
that  it  would  pay  in  the  end,  but  the  most  optimistic 
of  its  promoters  could  scarcely  have  anticipated  such 
extraordinarily  good  results  as  have  been  actually 
achieved.  The  takings  for  the  first  month's  work- 
ings realised  £10,000,  and  the  returns  for  the  rest  of 
the  time  have  been  equally  good.  It  was  estimated 
in  the  first  place  that  two  train-loads  a  week  would 
be  good,  and  sufficient  to  justify  the  construction  of 
the  line.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  train  a  day  has 
been  necessary  to  carry  all  the  goods,  and  that  train 
was  invariably  heavily  loaded.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, too,  that  this  railway  serves  a  district  of  the 
country  which  is  independent  of  artificial  irrigation  : 


298        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

the  produce  carried  has  been  raised  by  the  natives 
themselves  on  land  which  does  not  rob  Egypt  of  one 
drop  of  its  coveted  water. 

The  passenger  traffic  has  also  greatly  exceeded 
expectations  :  the  fourth  -  class  native  fares  alone 
have  produced  funds  almost  sufficient  to  cover  the 
whole  working  expenses  of  the  section. 

It  is  impossible  to  gauge  the  revenue  which  will 
accrue  to  the  Government  from  this  railway  as  soon 
as  the  further  section  is  completed  and  it  is  open  to 
traffic  as  far  as  Senaar.  As  I  have  pointed  out  in 
the  chapter  dealing  with  the  Blue  Nile,  the  river  is 
only  navigable  as  far  as  Wad  Medani  in  times  of 
low  Nile,  and  much  produce  is  floated  down-stream 
on  rafts,  from  the  south  to  Khartoum.  All  this  will 
be  altered  :  the  pleasant  drifting  days  will  be  over 
from  the  hour  that  the  first  train  leaves  Senaar  with 
produce  to  the  north ;  Senaar  will  emerge  from  its 
present-day  insignificance,  and  will  take  its  place  as 
one  of  the  most  important  junctions  in  the  Sudan. 

And  so  the  work  of  civilisation  goes  steadily  on. 
An  English  official  is  murdered  near  Wad  Medani, 
and  the  Sudan  lies  in  danger  of  revolt.  Then 
almost  before  grass  has  grown  upon  the  graves  which 
stand  as  witnesses  to  trouble,  the  pioneers  of  empire 
are  at  hand,  and  the  shriek  of  a  locomotive  proclaims 
their  victory. 

Again,  there  is  another  change  to  record  in  the 
"  To-day  "  of  the  Sudan,  a  change  which  has  come 
since  the  first  pages  of  this  book  were  in  type.  The 
Belgian  settlements  of  the  "  Lado  enclave,"  of  which 


YESTERDAY   AND    TO-DAY  299 

I  have  written,  are  .subject  to  alien  rule  no  longer  : 
with  the  death  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians  they 
have  become  provinces  of  the  Anglo- Egyptian  Sudan. 
Leased  to  King  Leopold  for  his  lifetime  only,  the 
whole  territory  bordering  the  Nile  reverted  to  the 
Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan  upon  his  death,  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  agreement,  six  months  after  his  demise, 
all  the  stations  in  this  territory  were  formally  handed 
over  to  the  Sudan  authorities. 

Thus  the  whole  valley  of  the  Nile  has  become 
subject  to  the  authority  of  England.  The  Uganda 
territories  are  ours  alone,  the  Sudan  is  a  joint  pro- 
tectorate of  England  and  Egypt ;  Egypt  herself 
comes  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Government  at 
Westminster.  The  presence  of  an  alien  force  upon 
the  western  banks  of  the  southern  Nile  was  always 
to  be  regretted  ;  it  formed  an  irritating,  if  not 
actually  dangerous,  obstruction  to  our  complete  con- 
trol of  the  Nile. 

And  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  Congolese  authori- 
ties in  the  Lado  enclave  showed  any  traits  of 
character  whicli  makes  their  disappearance  a  thing 
to  be  regretted.  It  has  been  shown  that  they  were 
not  always  very  politic  in  their  dealings  with  their 
neighbours,  and  apart  from  this,  their  continued 
tenure  would  have  completely  devastated  a  valuable 
shooting  field  of  the  world.  1  have  spoken  of  the 
lack  of  sporting  instincts  which  they  displayed  with 
the  rifle,  but  it  was  not  only  in  this  particular  branch 
of  sport  that  their  instincts  of  indiscriminate  slaughter 
asserted  itself      The  iiihabitanLs  of  the  river  sullcrcd 


300        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

to  quite  as  great  an  extent  as  did  the  inhabitants 
of  the  plains  and  forests  of  the  district.  When  the 
officials  of  the  Congo  stations  desired  fish,  they 
resorted  to  an  abominable,  if  simple,  method  of 
obtaining  it.  They  discharged  gun-cotton  in  the 
water,  and  as  the  dead  fish  rose  to  the  surface  they 
raked  in  what  was  necessary  to  their  needs,  and  left 
the  remainder  to  float  down  the  river  to  rot  on  its 
surface,  or  to  afiford  an  easy  meal  for  crocodiles. 

In  writing  of  fish  I  am  reminded  of  a  strange  thing 
which  occurred  near  Lake  No  at  the  entrance  to  the 
sudd.  I  was  proceeding  south  with  a  number  of 
officers,  including  a  Captain  Hawker,  on  board.  This 
latter  officer  had  a  small  felucca,  or  rowing-boat, 
which  on  this  occasion  was  in  tow  alongside  the 
steamer.  Night  had  just  fallen  when  suddenly  there 
was  a  heavy  crash  in  the  boat,  and  on  going  to 
investigate  I  found  that  a  big  fish  had  either  jumped 
into  the  boat  or  had  been  thrown  up  by  the  wheel 
of  the  steamer. 

It  proved  to  be  the  largest  fish  that  I  or  anyone 
else  on  board  had  ever  seen ;  I  believe  it  constituted 
a  record.  When  we  attempted  to  haul  him  out  at 
first  he  broke  a  seat  in  the  boat  with  one  slash  of 
his  tail,  but  we  eventually  got  him  on  board  to  be 
weighed  and  measured. 

I  took  down  the  result  in  my  diary  at  the  time, 
and  though  I  have  an  uneasy  feeling  that  no  one  will 
believe  me,  I  can  only  refer  doubters  to  Captain 
Hawker  and  record  the  weight  and  measurements 
as   they   were   taken   before   every   Englishman   on 


i 


YESTERDAY   AND   TO-DAY  301 

board.  Weight,  250  lbs. ;  length,  6  feet  1  inch ; 
girth,  4  feet  7  inches. 

Captain  Hawker  preserved  the  skeleton,  but  I 
do  not  know  how  he  has  disposed  of  it.  Contrary 
to  what  might  have  been  expected,  the  fish  proved 
to  be  excellent  eating,  and  its  advent  caused  great 
rejoicings  among  my  crew. 

But  I  must  return  to  the  two  reports  on  the 
Sudan  with  which  I  started  this  chapter.  This 
digression  was  not  premeditated,  but  it  is  not  often 
that  anyone  has  the  opportunity  of  telling  such  a 
Great  Fish  Story  as  this  one,  one  which  has  an 
additional  merit  in  happening  to  be  true. 

I  have  not  previously  spoken  of  the  great  work 
which  has  been  accomplished  at  Port  Sudan,  and  to 
which  Mr.  Prioleau  refers,  because  it  came  beyond  my 
limit  of  personal  knowledge,  and  the  opening  of  the 
port  occurred  long  after  I  had  left  the  country.  But, 
that  among  all  the  works  which  have  been  accom- 
plished in  the  Sudan,  this  comes  as  first  in  importance 
is  obvious  to  anyone  with  the  most  elementary 
knowledge  of  the  country.  With  the  construction 
of  the  Port  Sudan  railway  an  uninterrupted,  and 
short  railway  journey  from  the  capital  of  the  Sudan 
to  the  sea  was  secured  ;  with  the  opening  of  the 
port  itself,  the  country  has  been  given  the  shipping 
centre  which  was  one  of  its  chief  requirements,  and 
which  will  be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  Sudan. 
The  construction  of  a  railway  to  connect  Assouan 
with  Haifa  would  entail  enormous  expense,  and  it  is 
not  likely  that  this  work  will  now  be  undertaken,  for 


302        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

the  other  route  has  rendered  it  more  or  less  un- 
necessary. And,  apart  from  the  advantages  of  a 
quick  transport  route  for  merchandise  which  is  now 
assured  to  the  country,  there  is  another  and  almost 
equally  great  advantage  in  the  fact  that  troops  can 
now  be  drafted  into  the  Sudan  without  having  to 
pass  through  Egypt,  or  could  likewise  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  Egypt  from  the  south,  as  well  as  the 
north,  in  the  event  of  a  big  rising.  It  gives  us  a 
command  over  the  Sudan  such  as  never  could  have 
been  ours  had  we  been  dependent  upon  Egypt  for 
the  transport  of  troops  ;  events  move  quickly  in  the 
Sudan,  and  it  is  of  paramount  importance  that  we 
should  be  enabled  to  display  our  force  with  the  least 
possible  delay  should  occasion  arise. 

There  has  been  a  lot  of  nonsense  talked  by  members 
of  the  Legislative  Council  of  Egypt  regarding  the 
loans  which  the  Egyptian  Government  have  made 
to  the  Sudan ;  there  has  been  a  lot  of  nonsense 
written  about  the  same  subject  in  some  of  the 
cosmopolitan  Press  of  Egypt.  It  has  been  said  that 
Egypt  is  too  poor  to  afford  this  drain  on  her  finances, 
and  that  the  money  so  granted  is  wasted,  or  that  at 
all  events  it  might  be  used  to  better  advantage  in 
Egypt.  Recommendations  have  been  made  that 
there  should  be  no  further  grants  loaned  to  the  Sudan 
at  all,  and  that  it  should  be  forced  to  rely  entirely 
upon  its  own  resources  ;  that  any  further  improve- 
ments which  the  Sudan  officials  may  deem  necessary 
for  the  country,  and  which  they  cannot  afford  without 
assistance  from  Egypt,  should  be  left  until  such  time 


YESTERDAY   AND   TO-DAY  303 

as  sufficient  revenue  should  be  forthcoming  out  of  the 
coffers  of  the  Sudan  Government.  These  suggestions 
have  not,  happily,  been  taken  seriously ;  their 
absurdity  must  have  been  apparent  to  every  thinking 
man  in  either  Egypt  or  the  Sudan.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  these  monies  which  are  granted  to  the  Sudan 
are  excellent  investments  to  Egypt,  even  were  not 
the  former  country  subject  to  the  joint  protectorate 
of  the  latter.  The  Sudan  can  never  be  self-supporting 
unless  it  is  accorded  the  fullest  and  most  commodious 
means  of  transport,  and  in  order  to  obtain  this  it  was 
unavoidable  that  a  certain  amount  of  money  should 
be  borrowed  in  the  first  place.  The  annual  sum 
granted  by  Egypt  to  the  Sudan  has  been  considerably 
decreased  during  recent  years,  and  not  only  is  this 
the  case,  the  country  is  paying  interest  at  the  rate 
of  three  per  cent  on  every  penny  it  draws,  or  has 
drawn,  from  Egypt.  Under  a  less  capable  adminis- 
tration there  might  have  been  some  grounds  for 
complaint,  but  as  I  have  previously  remarked,  the 
Sudan  has  been  fortunate  in  its  choice  of  officials, 
and  never  more  so  than  in  the  appointment  of 
Colonel  Bernard  to  the  post  of  Financial  Secretary. 
For  the  many  years  which  he  has  held  this  post 
there  has  never  been  a  false  move  made,  there 
has  never  been  a  penny  allotted  to  any  work  which 
might  have  been  placed  to  any  other  with  better 
advantage.  He  is  one  of  the  hardest-working  officials 
of  the  Sudan ;  he  is  also  one  of  the  most  able. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  necessity  for   blasting  and 
other  operations  at  certain  portions  of  the  river  as 


304        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

being  of  the  most  pressing  description,  and  have  said 
that  I  consider  it  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment that  money  should  not  be  allotted  for  this 
purpose,  but  these  questions  only  affect  Colonel 
Bernard  in  a  secondary  degree,  since  he  is,  of  course, 
obliged  to  follow  the  path  laid  down  for  him,  and  if 
such  works  as  I  have  spoken  of  are  not  urged,  they 
are  naturally  placed  low  on  his  list,  and  are  overlooked 
entirely.  The  work  of  the  Financial  Secretary  is  one 
of  the  most  arduous,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the 
most  thankless,  in  the  Sudan.  It  is  seldom  that  the 
full  credit  demanded  by  any  one  department  can 
be  met,  and  there  is,  consequently,  always  a  display 
of  real  or  assumed  dissatisfaction  when  the  actual 
figures  of  the  Budget  are  made  known. 

To  stop  the  financial  assistance  which  has  hitherto 
been  given  to  the  Sudan  by  Egypt  at  the  present 
moment,  would  be  to  undo  at  one  stroke,  much  of  the 
good  which  has  been  accomplished  in  the  astonishingly 
short  space  of  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  fall  of 
Omdurman.  As  matters  stand  the  Sudan  is  in  no 
active  need  of  money  other  than  that  which  she  is 
already  allowed  ;  in  addition  to  that  which  accrues 
from  her  own  revenue.  The  greatest  disadvantage 
under  which  the  country  labours  is  that  of  under- 
population.  This  is  a  very  real  trouble,  and  one 
which  will  have  to  be  overcome  in  some  manner 
before  the  country  can  reach  a  standard  of  prosperity 
such  as  it  is  naturally  capable  of  attaining.  It  was 
at  one  time  suggested  to  import  American  negroes 
as  labourers,  but,  fortunately,  the  scheme  was  never 


YESTERDAY   AND    TO-DAY  305 

attempted.  In  the  event  of  its  happening,  I  cannot 
but  beHeve  that  any  advantages  which  might  follow, 
would  be  nullified  by  the  harm  which  the  contact 
with  American  negroes  would  work  on  the  Sudanese. 
Brought  suddenly  into  contact  with  such  men  as 
American  negroes,  men  of  the  same  colour,  but  in- 
finitely further  advanced  in  civihsation  than  the 
Sudanese  themselves,  they  would  be  prone  to  assimi- 
late the  worst  traits  of  the  race,  and  to  absorb  ideas 
of  their  own  importance  which  would  be  very  far 
removed  from  the  proper  level  on  which  they  should 
stand.  Again,  there  would  be  insurmountable  difier- 
ences  of  creed  to  be  considered,  and  there  is  nothing 
which  the  Sudanese  would  be  quicker  to  resent  than 
the  arrival  of  a  more  civilised  body  of  men — to  all 
appearances  of  the  same  standing  as  themselves — 
who  would  not  only  differ  from  them  in  the  matter 
of  religion,  but  who  might  very  possibly  ridicule  its 
forms  and  ceremonies. 

Another  suggestion  which  is  infinitely  more  likely 
to  succeed  if  acted  upon,  is  that  of  Sir  Walter  Merivale, 
who  advocates  the  introduction  of  Indian  labour  to 
the  Sudan;  the  men  to  be  drawn  entirely  from 
Mohammedan  tribes.  But  even  in  this  case  I  consider 
that  it  would  not  be  well  to  mix  the  two  races,  at 
least  at  first ;  the  ahens  could  be  given  districts  to 
work,  and  subjected,  of  course,  to  the  same  jurisdiction 
as  the  native-born.  The  decimation  of  the  population 
which  followed  the  disastrous  and  murderous  rule  of 
the  Mahdi  and  his  successor  in  the  country  will  take 
years  to  overcome  in  the  natural  course  of  events,  and 


306        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

in  the  meanwhile  the  country  is  treated  under  cir- 
cumstances which  cannot  be  otherwise  than  un- 
favourable, since  there  are  not  nearly  enough  hands 
to  work  all  the  cultivatable  land. 

Every  year  which  the  English  spend  in  the  country 
tends  to  reduce  the  recurrence  of  some  of  the  de- 
vastating epidemics  which  used  formerly  to  run 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  thus 
the  normal  birth-rate  will  have  some  opportunity  of 
asserting  itself.  But,  even  so,  it  will  be  many  years 
before  there  can  be  a  sufficient  increase  of  population 
to  put  the  country  right  again.  And  also  against  the 
rise  in  the  population,  it  must  be  remembered  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  people  will  not,  in  the  future, 
devote  themselves  to  agricultural  pursuits  entirely 
as  in  the  old  days  ;  they  are  being  taught  new  trades, 
new  enterprises  are  springing  up  in  the  country,  and 
a  certain  number  of  men  will  be  required  year  by 
year  to  keep  these  going  properly.  Then  when  the 
demands  of  the  Army  are  taken  into  consideration,  it 
will  be  found  that  there  is  in  reality  but  a  very  small 
proportion  of  the  able-bodied  men  of  the  Sudan  who 
will  be  available  for  agriculture,  and  there  seems  no 
way  out  of  the  difficulty  other  than  by  introducing 
alien  labour  into  the  country.  As,  of  course,  the 
greater  the  produce  of  the  country,  the  greater  its 
wealth,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  something  may  be  done 
in  the  direction  of  filling  up  the  gaps  in  the  population 
at  as  early  a  date  as  possible. 

Egyptians  are  useless  for  the  purposes  of  colonisa- 
tion in  the  Sudan,  even  if  they  could  be  spared  from 


YESTERDAY   AND    TO-DAY  307 

their  own  country.  They  do  not  hke  the  Sudan,  and 
the  cHmate  does  not  suit  them ;  there  would  also 
be  an  everyday  possibility  of  disturbances,  for  the 
Egyptian  looks  down  upon  the  Sudanie,  and  the 
Sudanie  looks  down  upon  the  Egyptian.  It  is  more 
than  doubtful  whether  the  ties  of  creed  would  be 
sufficient  to  ward  off  open  conflicts. 

But  though  this  under-population  is  a  very  real 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  rapid  expansion  of  the 
country,  it  has  in  no  way  affected  the  material 
work  of  civilisation  which  has  been  quietly  under- 
mining the  strongholds  of  fanaticism  and  savagery 
during  the  past  few  years.  The  name  of  the 
Sudan,  once  synonymous  with  fever,  rapine,  and 
bloodshed,  now  carries  with  it  the  vision  of  a  new 
and  popular  tourist  resort,  health-giving,  and  of 
exceeding  interest.  Hundreds  of  travellers,  who  a 
few  years  ago  would  have  sooner  dreamed  of  demand- 
ing a  ticket  to  the  North  Pole  than  to  Khartoum, 
now  walk  calmly  into  the  offices  of  Messrs.  Thomas 
Cook  and  Sons  and  take  their  circular  tickets  to  Gon- 
dokoro,  via  Egypt  and  the  Sudan.  And  they  do  this 
knowing  that  there  is  no  discomfort  in  the  journey ; 
knowing  that  at  every  station  they  will  meet  with 
those  smartly  uniformed  officials,  without  whom  the 
whole  world  would  be  lost  in  these  days  of  travel ; 
knowing  that  language  will  present  no  difficulties  for 
them,  for  Cook's  guides  are  apparently  gifted  with 
an  apostolic  tongue  which  carries  understanding  even 
to  the  mind  of  a  Dinka. 

In  Khartoum — where   Gordon   fell — they  wander 


308        FIVE   YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 

now  through  ordered  streets  and  gardens,  for  the 
metamorphosis  of  the  country  is  complete,  and,  as  a 
guarantee  of  future  safety,  "  Over  the  sand  and  the 
palm  trees,"  flies,  side  by  side  with  the  Star  and 
Crescent  of  Egypt,  the  flag  of  our  Sovereign  Lord 
the  King. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE    MIRTH   OF   ALLAH 

"  When  Allah  made  the  Sudan  he  laughed." 

Native  saying, 

▼  *  I  have  questioned  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men  of  many  races,  and  I  have  never  been  given 
the  same  answer.  I  questioned  the  boy — a  Sudanie — 
from  whose  lips  I  first  heard  the  quotation,  and  he 
said  it  was  because  it  was  Allah's  best  work  !  I 
questioned  an  Egyptian  officer  who  had  just  arrived 
in  the  country,  and  he  replied  that  it  was  because 
Allah  had  succeeded  in  His  wish  to  show  what  He 
could  have  done  had  He  wished  to  create  the  whole 
world  a  Hades  !  Englishmen  are  usually  doubtful ; 
some  say  one  thing,  some  another. 

Personally,  my  opinion  while  in  the  Sudan  differed 
according  to  time  and  season.  Sometimes,  when  I 
have  been  vainly  seeking  a  refuge  from  storm  and 
mosquitoes,  under  a  waterproof  sheet,  in  a  bath  some 
three  sizes  too  small  for  me,  or  when  I  have  stood  on 
the  top  deck  of  my  steamer,  and  looked  afar  into  the 
desolation  of  the  sudd,  1  have  fancied  that  I  heard 
an  echo  of  the  ironical  laughter  of  Allah  as  He  looked 
upon  this  world,  and,  having  made  all  things  else 

309 


310        FIVE    YEARS    IN    THE    SUDAN 

beautiful,  thought,  as  we  may  think  when  we  look 
upon  some  of  our  hurried  ejSorts, — "  I've  done  it 
this  time." 

But,  again,  when  the  fascination  of  the  tangled 
forests,  or  the  sweeping,  boundless  plains,  or  even 
the  sight  of  an  elephant  plunging  through  the  sudd, 
have  laid  their  hold  upon  my  mind,  I  felt  that  I  was 
wrong,  and  that  the  youthful  Sudanie  enthusiast 
who  first  spoke  to  me  on  the  subject,  was  nearer 
the  truth  than  I  had  been. 

There  are  thousands  of  miles  of  land  in  the 
Egyptian  Sudan  which  will,  in  the  fullness  of  time, 
be  converted  into  thriving  agricultural  country ; 
there  are  thousands  of  miles  which  must  lie  unchanged 
through  the  centuries,  the  throne  of  desolation. 

Now,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine 
hundred  and  ten,  the  Sudan  is  still  in  its  earliest 
youth  ;  for  centuries  it  has  lain  neglected,  far  beyond 
the  sweep  of  the  scythe  of  civilisation  ;  small  bodies 
of  men  have  crossed  its  borders,  eager  to  import 
the  benefits  of  knowledge  upon  a  savage  and  primitive 
race.  One  by  one  they  have  sunk  to  their  graves 
under  the  pressure  of  gnawing  sickness,  or  at  the 
hands  of  those  incomprehending  natives  whom  they 
had  sought  to  serve.  A  few  came  straggUng  back, 
with  the  forlorn  knowledge  of  complete  failure  to 
companion  them. 

It  was  the  "  end  of  cultivation." 

But  the  change  has  come  at  last.  At  the  cost  of 
thousands  of  lives  it  is  true,  the  Sudan  has  been 
forced,  willy  nilly,  into  the  acceptance  of  knowledge 


THE   MIRTH   OF   ALLAH  311 

and  all  that  knowledge  brings.  Waking — like  a  child 
on  the  threshold  of  understanding — the  country 
finds  the  fruit  of  the  world's  endeavour  spread  before 
it ;  all  that  science,  commerce  and  art  have  to  ofier 
in  their  twentieth-century  perfection  is  there  for  the 
asking,  and  after  five  years'  residence  in  the  Sudan 
it  is  my  beUef  that  the  Sudanese  will  prove  to  be  no 
tardy  applicants.  Unlike  the  Egyptians  they  have 
no  great  past  to  turn  to ;  their  accomplishment 
lies  all  in  the  future,  and,  already,  with  one  great 
bound,  they  have  leapt  forward  to  grasp  their  oppor- 
tunity. 

And  so,  after  all,  the  challenging  assertion  of  the 
Sudanie  boy  regarding  the  mirth  of  Allah  may  well 
have  truth  upon  its  side.  For  it  may  be  that  Allah  in 
surveying  His  work,  was  struck,  as  we  of  the  Western 
world  have  been,  with  the  possibilities  of  the  Sudan 
and  its  inhabitants,  and  that,  His  eye  roving  over 
the  plains  and  jungles  of  this,  the  spare  room  of  the 
world,  He  looked  far  into  the  depths  of  an  ordered 
future  and  laughed  with  the  joy  of  a  creator  who 
knows  that  His  work  is  good. 


APPENDICES 

FOR  the  convenience  of  sportsmen  visiting  the  Sudan 
I  am  appending  two  of  the  more  important  Proclama- 
tions of  the  Sudan  Government.  These  orders  are,  of 
course,  liable  to  alteration  from  time  to  time,  but  the  order 
of  the  year  is  at  all  times  rigidly  enforced.  The  fullest 
information  is  always  obtainable  from  the  Sudan  Agent 
at  the  War  Office  in  Cairo,  and  a  strict  compliance  with 
his  injunctions  is  necessary  to  prevent  delay  and  disappoint- 
ment in  the  Sudan. 

APPENDIX   A 

DISTRICTS    CLOSED    TO    TRAVELLERS 

With  reference  to  notice  as  to  passports  and  reporting 
for  Europeans  and  foreigners,  published  in  the  Sudan 
Gazette  of  the  1st  August,  1903,  No.  50,  page  99,  His 
Excellency  the  Governor-General  has  been  pleased  to  order 
as  follows  : — 

(1)  Europeans  and  foreigners  not  being  traders,  travel- 
ling for  the  purpose  of  pleasure  and  sport  south  of  Khartoum 
or  in  Kordofan,  who  have  a  subsisting  game  licence,  need 
not  obtain  a  pass  from  the  Secretary-General  unless  they 
enter  the  districts  mentioned  below. 

(2)  No  European  or  foreign  traveller  is,  until  further 
notice,  permitted  to  enter  the  districts  mentioned  below, 
unless  he  obtains  the  Governor-General's  special  permission 
through  the  oflice  of  the  Secretary-General,  Khartoum,  and 
any   traveller  who  ol^tains  such  special   permission  must 

313 


314        FIVE    YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

regulate  his   movements   in  accordance  with  instructions, 
which  will  be  given  to  him. 

Owing  to  the  local  conditions  of  these  districts,  such 
special  permission  will  be  granted  to  persons  travelling 
for  pleasure  or  sport  under  exceptional  circumstances  only. 

THE  DISTRICTS  ABOVE  REFEERED  TO 

(a)  The  Kordofan  Province  south  of  a  line  connecting 
Sherkeila,  Eahad,  Abu  Haraz,  Abu  Zabbat,  Nahud,  and 
El  Eddeiya. 

(b)  The  Bahr  El  Ghazal  Province. 

(c)  The  districts  south  and  west  of  a  line  drawn  from 
Nasser  on  the  Sobat  to  Fading  on  the  Khor  Filus,  thence 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Zeraf  river  (which  the  steamers  or 
boats  of  private  parties  may  not  enter),  and  thence  to  the 
western  end  of  Lake  No. 

"With  the  exception  that  parties  using  a  steamer  or  boat 
on  the  river  as  a  base,  and  not  proceeding  more  than  a 
day's  march  inland  from  it,  may  shoot  on  either  bank  of  the 
Upper  Nile  north  of  Shambe,  and  south  of  Shambe  on  the 
east  bank  to  the  Uganda  boundary. 

ORDER 

THE  PRESERVATION  OF  WILD  ANIMALS  ORDINANCE, 

1908 

In  exercise  of  the  powers  conferred  upon  me  by  sections 
4,  5,  10,  11,  12,  and  13  of  the  above-mentioned  Ordinance, 
and  of  every  other  power  enabling  me  in  this  behalf,  I, 
Major-General  Sir  Francis  Reginald  Wingate,  k.c.b.,  k.c.m.g., 
D.S.O.,  Governor-General  of  the  Sudan,  do  HEREBY  ORDER 
and  PRESCRIBE  as  follows  :— 

1.  In  this  order  the  term  "  the  Ordinance "  means  the 
Preservation  of  Wild  Animals  Ordinance,  1908. 

2.  (See  Section  4  of  the  Ordinance.) 

For  the  purpose  of  the  Ordinance  the  Classes  1,  2,  and  3, 


APPENDICES  315 

mentioned  in  Section  4,  shall  include  respectively  the 
several  species  of  animals  and  birds  respectively  mentioned 
in  Parts  i.,  ii.,  and  iii.  of  the  first  schedule  thereto,  subject 
as  to  Class  1  to  the  provisions  in  favour  of  ostrich  farming 
contained  in  Sections  4  and  9  of  the  Ordinance,  and  pro- 
vided that  Rhinoceros  shall  be  included  in  Class  1  in  the 
Provinces  of  Kassala  and  Sennar,  and  therefore  may  not  be 
hunted,  captured,  or  killed  in  these  provinces,  but  shall 
be  included  in  Class  2  in  the  rest  of  the  Sudan,  and  there- 
fore may  be  hunted  or  captured  or  killed  to  the  extent 
specified  in  the  next  paragraph  of  this  order,  and  in  Part  ii. 
of  said  first  schedule. 

3.  (See  Section  6  of  the  Ordinance.) 

The  number  of  animals  or  birds  of  any  species  included 
in  Class  2  and  3  which  a  licence  holder  may  capture  or  kill 
during  the  currency  of  one  licence  shall  be  those  respectively 
mentioned  with  regard  to  each  such  species  in  Parts  ii.  and 
iii.  of  the  first  schedule  hereto. 

4,  (See  Section  6  of  the  Ordinance.) 

The  fees  payable  in  respect  of  licences  "  A "  and  "  B " 
issued  under  the  above-mentioned  Ordinance  shall  be : — 
For  an  "  A  "  licence,  £E50  ;  for  a  "  B  "  licence,  £E5,  except 
when  issued  to  an  officer  or  official  of  the  Sudan  Govern- 
ment or  of  the  British  or  Egyptian  Governments  or  Armies, 
provided  such  officer  or  official  be  serving  in  the  Sudan  or 
in  Egypt,  and  subject  to  my  approval  in  each  case  to  a 
person  ordinarily  resident  in  the  Sudan  or  intending  to 
reside  there,  in  which  case  the  fees  shall  be: — 

For  licence  A,  £E6 ;  for  licence  B,  £E1 ;  and  except  also 
that  the  licensing  officer  may  at  his  discretion  issue  to  any 
person  a  temporary  licence  B  for  one  or  more  consecutive 
days,  not  exceeding  four,  at  the  rate  of  P.T.25  for  each  day. 
Provided  always  that  every  liolder  of  a  licence  A  issued  at 
the  £E6  shall  pay  to  the  Superintendent  of  Game  Preserva- 
tion Department  an  additional  fee  of  £E10  for  every 
elephant  killed  or  captured   by  him  under   such   licence. 


316        ¥IVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

Provided  also  that  every  holder  of  licence  A  issued  at 
either  rate  shall  pay  to  the  licence  officer  an  additional 
fee  of  £E20  for  every  girafte  killed  or  captured  by  him 
under  such  licence.  Every  holder  of  licence  A  shall  report 
in  writing  to  the  Superintendent,  Game  Preservation  De- 
partment, Khartoum,  at  the  first  opportunity,  the  killing  or 
capture  of  any  animal  in  respect  of  which  he  is  hereby 
required  to  pay  an  additional  fee  as  aforesaid,  and  shall 
either  pay  the  amount  of  such  fee  into  some  Government 
chest  to  the  credit  of  the  Game  I'reservation  Department, 
and  inform  the  Superintendent,  Game  Preservation  De- 
partment, of  the  number  and  date  of  the  order  by  which 
he  paid  it  in  and  the  place  where  the  payment  was  made, 
or  transmit  the  amount  of  the  fee  to  the  Superintendent, 
Game  Preservation  Department,  with  the  report. 

5.  (See  Section  6  of  the  Ordinance.) 

Every  licence  shall  be  valid  for  the  period  of  one  year 
from  the  date  of  issue  thereof,  except  in  the  case  of  a  tem- 
porary licence,  which  shall  be  valid  for  the  particular  days 
therein  specified. 

6.  (See  Section  10  of  the  Ordinance.) 

The  sale  and  purchase  of  the  hides,  horns,  and  flesh,  or 
of  any  trophies  of  any  animals  and  birds  specified  in  the  first 
part  of  the  second  schedule  hereto,  is  absolutely  prohibited 
throughout  the  Sudan. 

The  sale  and  purchase  of  the  hides,  horns,  or  flesh,  or  of 
any  trophies  of  the  animals  specified  in  the  second  part  of 
the  second  schedule  hereto,  is  prohibited  in  those  parts 
of  the  Sudan  which  are  specified  in  the  second  part  of  the 
same  schedule. 

7.  (See  Section  11  of  the  Ordinance.) 

Subject  to  the  exemption  contained  in  sub-section  5  of 
Section  11  of  the  Ordinance  in  favour  of  the  holders  of 
licences  issued  under  the  Ordinance  and  to  the  exceptions 
contained  in  sub-section  6  of  the  same  section,  ad  valorem 
duty  of  20  per  cent  shall  be  paid  on  elephant  hides  and 


APPENDICES  317 

hippopotamus  hides,  and  an  ad  valorem  duty  of  10  per  cent 
shall  be  paid  on  all  other  hides,  horns,  flesh,  or  trophies  of 
any  animal  or  bird  included  in  Classes  1,  2,  and  3  which 
may  lawfully  be  sold. 

This  duty  shall  be  paid  at  the  time  and  place  provided 
by  Section  11  of  the  Ordinance.  This  duty  is  in  addition 
to  any  Customs  duties  which  may  at  any  time  be  payable 
on  the  export  of  any  such  things  from  the  Sudan,  and  to 
any  Royalties  which  may  under  any  Ordinance  for  the  time 
being  be  leviable  on  any  such  things. 

8.  (See  Section  12  of  the  Ordinance.) 

An  export  tax  shall  be  levied  upon  each  living  specimen 
exported  from  the  Sudan  of  each  species  of  animal  or  bird 
mentioned  in  the  third  schedule  hereto  at  the  rate  specified 
for  each  species  in  the  same  schedule. 

9.  (See  Section  13  of  the  Ordinance.) 

The  districts  hereinafter  described  are  hereby  constituted 
a  sanctuary  for  game  under  the  provisions  of  Section  13  of 
the  Ordinance,  namely : — The  district  bounded  on  the  north 
by  a  line  drawn  from  Kaka  on  the  White  Nile  to  Famaka 
on  the  Blue  Nile,  on  the  east  by  the  Blue  Nile  from  Famaka 
to  the  Abyssinian  Frontier  and  then  by  the  boundary  with 
Abyssinia  to  the  Baro  river,  on  the  south  by  the  Baro 
river  to  its  junction  with  the  Sobat  river  and  then  by  the 
Sobat  river  to  its  junction  with  the  White  Nile,  and  on  the 
west  by  the  main  channel  of  the  While  Nile. 

10.  The  district  hereinafter  described  is  hereby  consti- 
tuted a  reserve  for  game  under  the  provisions  of  Section  13 
of  the  Ordinance,  namely : — The  district  bounded  on  the 
north  by  a  line  drawn  from  Jebelein  on  the  White  Nile  to 
Karkoj  on  the  Blue  Nile,  on  the  east  by  the  Blue  Nile 
between  Karkoj  and  Famika,  on  the  south  by  a  line  drawn 
from  Famika  to  Kaka,  and  on  the  west  by  the  While  Nile 
between  Kaka  and  Jebelein. 

11.  (See  Section  13  of  the  Ordinance.) 

A  special  permit  issued  to  any  holder  of  a  licence  (A 


318        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE    SUDAN 


or  V>)  authorising^  him  to  hunt,  capture,  or  kill  wild  animals 
or  birds  in  tlie  lleserve  sliall  (except  in  the  case  of  a  person 
residing  in  the  Reserve  or  of  any  officer  or  official  stationed 
in  the  Eeserve)  be  valid  for  a  period  not  exceeding  30  days, 
to  be  specified  in  such  permit. 

A  special  permit  authorising  the  holder  to  hunt,  capture, 
or  kill  wild  animals  or  birds,  either  in  the  Sanctuary  or  in 
the  Eeserve,  shall  not  be  issued  to  the  holder  of  a  temporary 
licence  (B). 

THE    FIRST    SCHEDULE 

Part  I 

Class  1.  Animals  or  birds  which  may  not  be  hunted, 
captured,  or  killed  : — 

Wild  Ass       ...         . 

Zebra    

Ostrich  .... 


Shoe  Bill  {Balaeniceps) 
Ground  Horn  Bill  (Bucorax) 
Secretary  Bird  (Serpentarius) 


and  (in  Kassala  and  Sennar  Provinces  only)  Rhinoceros. 

Ostriches  may  be  hunted  and  captured  but  not  killed,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ostrich  farming,  but  not  otherwise. 

Part   II 

Class  2,  Animals  and  birds  a  limited  number  of  which 
may  be  captured  or  killed  by  the  holder  of  an  "  A  "  licence, 
and  the  number  of  each  species  which  may  be  captured 
or  killed: — 


Giraffe  (subject  to  the  payment 
of  an  additional  fee  of  £E2()) 

Rhinoceros  (except  in  Kassala 
and  Sennar  Provinces,  in 
which  Rhinoceros  may  not 
be  killed  or  captured) 

Mrs.  Gray's  Water  Buck  {Gobus 
Maria)  .... 

Eland  (Taurotragus) 

Kudu  (Strepsiceros)  . 

Oryx  Beisa      .... 

Elephant  (subject  as  regards 
holders  of  licences  "A" 
issued  at  the  £E6  rate  to 
the  payment  of  an  additional 


fee  of  £E10  for  each  Ele- 
1  phant)  .... 

Buffalo 

Water  Buck  {Gobus  Defassa)     . 
(But   not    more   than   2   of 
1  these   may   be   captured   or 

killed  in  Kassala  and  Sennar 
1  Provinces  and  on  the  White 

1  Nile  north  of  Kodok.) 

1       Roan  Antelope  (Hippotragus)  . 
1  (But  not   more    than   2   of 

these  may  be  killed  or  cap- 
tured in  Kassala  and  Sennar 
Provinces  and  on  the  White 
Nile  north  of  Kodok.) 


APPENDICES 


319 


Bush  Buck  (Tragelaphus)  .  4 
Tora  }ia.Ttebeest(Bubalis  Torn)  4 
Oryx  Leucoryx  .  .  .4 
White-eared  Cob  {Oohus  Levr 

cotis)    .  .         .         .4 

Uganda  Cob  {Cohus  Thomasi)  .     6 

Addax 6 

Addra  Gazelle  (Gazella  Rufio- 

collis) 6 


Reed  Buck  (Gervicapra)   . 
(But   not    more   than   4   of 
these   may  be   captured   or 
killed  elsewhere  than  in  Kas- 
sala  and  Sennar  Provinces.) 

Jackson's  Hartebeest  (Buhalis 
Jacksoni.  .... 
(But  not  more  than  4  of 
these  may  be  captured  or 
killed  elsewhere  than  in  the 
Bahr-el-Ghazal  Province.) 


12 


Part    III 

Class  3.  Animals  and  birds  a  limited  number  of  which 
may  be  captured  or  killed  by  the  holder  of  an  "  A  "  licence 
or  a  "  B  "  licence,  and  the  number  of  each  species  which 
may  be  captured  or  killed : — 


Klipspringer   .... 
Hippopotamus 

(But  there  is  no  limit  to  the 

1 
4 

Herons    . 

Storks     . 
Marabouts 

2 
2 
2 

number    of    Hippopotamus 
which  may  be  captui'ed  or 

Spoon  Bills 
Flamingoes 

2 

2 

killed  south  of  Kodok  and 

Ibis 

2 

Sennar.) 

Crowned  Crane 

6 

Ibex 

4 

*Wart  Hog      . 

6 

(But  not    more   than   2   of 

*Tiang     . 

6 

these   may  be   captured   or 
killed  south  of  Suakm.) 

*Large  Bustard 
Other  Antelopes  an 

d 

Ga 

zelles 

12 

Wild  Sheep    .... 

2 

not  before  specified 

in  this 

Pelican   ..... 
Egret 

2 
2 

schedule  (each  sp 

ecies 

)         . 

12 

*  A  licence  liolder  on  a  trip  of  more  than  three  months'  duration  may 
shoot  four  more  of  such  of  these  for  food  in  every  additional  month  after  the 
first  three. 

THE    SECOND    SCHEDULE 
Part  I 

Animals  and  birds  in  respect  of  which  the  sale  and 
purchase  of  the  hides,  horns,  flesh,  or  trophies  is  absolutely 
prohibited  throughout  the  Sudan. 

All  animals  and  birds  for  the  time  being  included  in 
Class  I,  and  Mrs.  Gray's  Water  Buck,  White-eared  Cob, 
Kudu,  Water  Buck,  all  other  species  of  Cob,  Ptoan  Antelope, 


320        FIVE   YEARS   IN   THE    SUDAN 

Jackson's  Hartebeest,  Oryx  Leucoryx,  Tbex,  Giraffe,  Tora 
Hartebeest.  Oryx  Beisa,  Klaml. 

I'ART    II 

Animals  in  respect  of  whicli  the  sale  and  purchase  of  the 
hides,  horns,  flesh,  and  trophies  is  prohibited  in  certain  parts 
only  of  the  Sudan.  Name  of  Animal :  Ehinoceros,  Eeed 
Buck,  Ariel.  Districts  in  which  the  prohibition  is  in  force : 
Kassala  and  Sennar  Provinces. 

THE    THIED    SCHEDULE 

Export  Tax  on  living  animals.  Each  £E24: — Elephant, 
Girafte,  Ehinoceros. 

Each  £E10 : — Buffalo,  Uganda  Cob,  Oryx  Leucoryx,  "Wild 
Ass,  White-eared  Cob,  Oryx  Beisa,  Zebra,  Jackson's  Harte- 
beest, Addax,  Water  Buck,  Tora  Hartebeest,  Kudu,  Mrs. 
Gray's  Water  Buck,  Eoan  Antelope,  Eland. 

Each  £E5 :  Hippopotamus,  Ibex,  Balaeniceps,  Addra 
Gazelle,  Wild  Sheep. 

Each  £E2 : — Ostrich,  Secretary  Bird. 

Each  £El: — Lion,  Cheetah,  Leopard. 


APPENDIX   B 

PROCLAMATION  REGARDING   THE   IMPORT   OF 
AMMUNITION 

1.  This  Proclamation  applies  only  to  ammunition  im- 
ported for  the  personal  use  of  holders  of  firearm  licenses 
and  of  persons  authorised  to  carry  firearms  without  a  license 
and  as  regards  such  ammunition  the  Proclamation  relating 
to  the  importation  of  and  dealing  in  ammunition  and  ex- 
plosives and  published  in  Sudan  Gazette  No.  64  of  1st  July 
1904  is  hereby  repealed. 


APPENDICES  321 

2.  Such  ammunition  shall  only  be  imported  by  virtue  of 
a  permit  to  be  issued  by  the  Sudan  Agent  Cairo  and  such 
other  officers  or  officials  of  the  Sudan  Government  as  the 
Governor-General  shall  from  time  to  time  authorise  in  this 
behalf. 

3.  Every  such  permit  shall  be  personal  and  the  am- 
munition imported  thereunder  shall  not  be  transferred  by 
sale  gift  or  otherwise  to  any  person  not  named  in  the 
permit  except  with  the  written  permission  of  the  Sudan 
Agent  Cairo  or  the  Civil  Secretary  or  such  other  officer 
or  official  of  the  Sudan  Government  as  may  for  the  time 
being  be  authorised  in  this  behalf  by  the  Governor-General. 

4.  Permits  shall  be  issued  for  the  import  of  ammunition 
for  the  use  of  officers  of  the  Army  of  Occupation  stationed 
in  the  Sudan  and  of  officers  and  officials  of  the  Sudan 
Government  and  Egyptian  Army  and  of  civilians  resident 
in  the  Sudan  only  in  accordance  with  directions  and  subject 
to  conditions  from  time  to  time  laid  down  by  the  Governor- 
General. 

Such  persons  shall  be  bound  by  all  the  provisions  of  this 
Proclamation  other  than  those  contained  in  the  next  follow- 
ing paragraph. 

5.  Permits  shall  be  issued  for  the  import  of  ammunition 
for  the  use  of  persons  not  mentioned  in  the  last  paragraph 
in  accordance  with  the  following  regulations : — 

(i)  The  applicant  for  a  permit  shall  state  in  what  district 
he  proposes  to  shoot  and  the  approximate  time  his  shooting 
trip  will  occupy  and  give  particulars  of  the  weapons  for 
which  he  wants  the  ammunition  and  if  he  applies  on  behalf 
of  a  party  he  shall  also  state  the  number  of  shooting  mem- 
bers of  his  party. 

(ii)  The  number  of  rounds  of  ball  cartridge  and  shot-gun 
ammunition  authorised  in  any  one  permit  shall  not  exceed 
such  amounts  of  each   for  each  person  as  the  Governor- 

Y 


322        FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 

General  shall  from  time  to  time  order  but  it  shall  be  at  the 
discretion  of  the  applicant  how  those  amounts  shall  be  dis- 
tributed among  the  various  kinds  of  ball  cartridge  and  shot- 
gun ammunition  which  he  wishes  to  import. 

(iii)  Ammunition  for  revolvers  and  pistols  shall  not  be 
counted  in  the  amounts  of  ball  cartridge  referred  to  in  sub- 
section (ii)  but  not  more  than  100  rounds  of  such  ammunition 
shall  be  authorised  in  any  permit. 

(iv)  The  permit  shall  state  the  name  of  the  applicant  (or 
in  the  case  of  a  party  the  names  of  all  the  shooting  members 
of  the  party)  the  numbers  and  particulars  of  the  weapons 
for  which  the  ammunition  is  required  the  districts  in  which 
it  is  proposed  to  shoot  the  approximate  time  intended  to 
be  occupied  on  the  trip  and  the  number  of  rounds  of  each 
kind  of  ammunition  authorised. 

(v)  Every  permit  holder  shall  before  leaving  the  Sudan 
account  for  the  ammunition  imported  under  his  permit  and 
shall  either  take  the  unexpended  rounds  out  of  the  Sudan  or 
deliver  the  same  for  destruction  or  other  disposal  of  some 
ofiEicer  of  the  Sudan  Government  authorised  in  that  behalf 
by  the  Governor-General  such  accounting  shall  be  made  at 
Khartoum  or  such  other  places  and  to  such  officers  of  the 
Sudan  Government  as  the  Governor-General  shall  from 
time  to  time  order. 

6.  No  ammunition  of  a  kind  the  importation  of  which  for 
the  time  being  is  prohibited  shall  be  authorised  to  be  im- 
ported by  any  permit. 

7.  The  Sudan  Agent  and  any  other  person  authorised  to 
issue  permits  may  refuse  to  issue  any  particular  permit 
applied  for  and  may  refuse  to  issue  any  permit  to  a  par- 
ticular applicant  without  in  either  case  being  bound  to 
allege  any  reason. 

8.  Every  person  who  commits  any  breach  of  the  provisions 
of  this  Proclamation  shall  be  liable  to  a  fine  not  exceeding 


APPENDICES  323 

£E100  for  each  such  offence  and  to  revocation  of  all  licenses 
to  carry  firearms  or  to  hunt  or  shoot  game  of  which  he  may- 
be the  holder ;  and  the  ammunition  in  respect  of  which  any 
such  offence  was  committed  and  all  other  ammunition  in- 
cluded in  the  same  permit  shall  be  liable  to  confiscation. 

{Signed)  Keginald  Wingate, 

Govevjior-  General. 
Khaetoum. 
January  10,  1907. 


INDEX 


Abu  Zeit,  Ford  of,  5& 
Abyssinia,  86,  213,  219,  241 
Anderson,  R.  G.,  259 
Apes,  94 

"  Arabian  Nights,"  267 
Armstrong,  the  late  Bey,  121 
Assouan-Haifa  Railway,  301 

Bahr-el-Abyad,  89 

Bahr-el-Ghazal,  91,  106,  107, 
119,  123 

Bahr-el-Zaraf,  131 

Balfour,  Dr,  Andrew,  259 

Bazaars  at  Omdurman,  6 

Belgian  Congo,  65,  172,  120, 
299 

Bernard,  Colonel,  303 

Bor,  167 

Borton,  Captain,  140,  152,  157, 
173 

Bordman,  the  late  Colour-Ser- 
geant, 122 

Bush-buck,  171 

Butler  Bey,  251 

Cannibalism,  121 

Carey,  Captain,  144,  146,  147 


Catholic  Mission,  64 

—  Missionaries,  71,  178 

Civil  Officials,  196,  245,  248; 

and  Military,  251 
Cook,  Thomas,  160,  307 
Crocodiles,  46,  52,  176,  226 
Currie,  James,  286 

Dervishes,  Howling,  275 
Dinkas,  70,  273 
Drury,  Lieutenant,  124,  133 
Dueim,  49 

Eland,  113 

Elephants,  95,   112,   129,   144, 

146,  162,  168,  175,  225 
Egypt,  227 
Egyptians,  superstition  of,  263 

Garstin,  Sir  William,  131 
Gebel  Ain,  59 
Getenia,  45 
Gondokoro,  152,  159 
Gorringe,     Colonel,    200,    210, 
212 

—  Leonard,  202 
Gordon  College,  1,  286 


325 


326 


FIVE    YEARS    IN   THE   SUDAN 


Grand  Hotel,  192 
Greeks,  16,  67 

Halfayeh,  2 

Hausa  Laud,  224 

Hawker,  Captain,  300 

Haymes,  Captain,  113 

Hippopotamus,  81,  89,  125 

Hospital,  137 

Howard,  the  late  Hon.  Hubert, 

32 
Hunting-dog,  234 

Jaalin  tribe,  137 
Jackson's  hartebeeste,  172 
Journalist's  report  on  Sudan,  292 
Jur  river,  95 

Kamlin,  198 
Kawa,  54 
Kererri,  36 
Khalifa,  24,  33,  231 
Khartoum,  1,  3,  254,  307  ;  De- 
partment of  Works  at,  193 
King,  the  story  of  a,  69 
Kipling,  190,  277 
Kiro,  141,  147 
Kitchener,  30,  286,  289 
Koodoo,  113,  277 
Kordofan,  49 

Lado,  141,  148,  298 

Lake  No,  91 

Legislative   Council  of    Egypt, 

302 
Leopard,  201,  208,  215 


Mahdi's  tomb,  26-33 
Mahdi,  the  Kordofan,  229 
Marchand,  Major,  62,  71,  177 
Matthews,  Colonel,  66 
Mahan,  Colonel,  230 
Mechanic,  first  payment  of,  15 
Medical  Department,  Civil  and 

Military,  252,  258 
Merivale,  Sir  Walter,  305 
Meshra-el-Rek,  95,  115 
Middleton,  G.  B.,  92 
Military  code,  195 
Military  and  Civil  officials,  251 
Missionaries,     177;      Catholic, 

178;     Church    of    England, 

179;  American,   181 
Mongalla,  140,  161 
Morality  in  Congo,  149 
Moslem     religion,     276 ;     and 

Christian,  277 
McMiUan  expedition,  204 

Niles,    Blue   and   White,  com- 
pared, 241 

Omdurman,  1,  2,  4,  40,  254 

"Paget,  M.P.,"  247 
Papyrus,  128 
Poole,  R  C,  133 
Port  Sudan,  300 
Prioleau,  John,  292 

Rains,  212 
Railways,  211,  297 
Rawson,  Captain,  112 


INDEX 


327 


Regaf,  154 
Renk,  60 
Rhinoceros,  164 
Roseii-es,  201,  204,  235 
Royal  Engineers,  193 
Rufaa,  199 

Sanduk,  135 

Scorpions  and  a   native   actor, 

119 
Scott-Barbour,  the  late  Mr.,  115 
Scott-Moncrieff,   the   late    Mr., 

198 
Senaar,  201,  298 
Senga,  201 
Servants,  native,  136;  devotion 

of,  138 
Shambe,  135 
Slaves,  76,  202 
Snake  story,  72 
Sobat  river,  75 ;  people  of  this 

district,  80 ;  snakes,  82 


Sudanese,  different  tribes  com- 
pared, 233 
Sudanese,  superstitions,  264 

—  romance  of  the,  268 

—  wedding  of,  271 

Sudd,  in  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  100 
Sudd,  the  great,  128 

Taufikier,  73,  74,  87 
Tourah  hartebeeste,  236 

Wad  Medami,  198,  200 

Wadi  Haifa,  2 

Water-buck,  171 

Watson,  Colonel,  72 

Wau,  95 

Welcome  Research  Laboratories, 

259 
White-eared  cob,  89 
Wingate,    Sir    Reginald,    228, 

250 

Zebra,  171 


WILLIAM    URENUON   AND  SON,    LTD, 
l-RINTEKS,    PLYMOUTH 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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AA    001133199    8 


